


Ce N'est Que Le Commencement

by F1nch



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Gen, It's hard to explain, This sure is words??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21629905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F1nch/pseuds/F1nch
Summary: Amélioré - Improved, enhanced, betterWhen little Black Sheep makes her way off of VILE island, home to VILE Academy of Supervilliany, she finds a world just as strange as fiction.A reimagining of Carmen Sandiego in an AU where superpowers are the name of the game. The game of crime, at least.Rated T for language and fantasy violence.
Relationships: Player & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 41
Kudos: 116





	1. The Precious Cargo Caper

**Author's Note:**

> Do I like superhero AUs a little too much? Maybe just a bit.  
> What started as an imagine turned into a fic that was way more complicated than it needed to be. But that's what sci fi is all about, right?  
> This is unbetaed, so I apolagize in advance for any mistakes in grammar or spelling. 
> 
> Chapter Warnings: Depictions of firearms, depictions of law enforcement

The Finnish countryside whipped by outside Julia Argent’s window. Forests lolled out for endless miles, bordering the highway. 

“If they were going to send us to an airport.” Her partner, Chase Devineaux, grumbled from the driver’s seat. “Could they not have just flown us to the airport?!”

“Would the criminals not have expected us? A BFAA plane showing up may have scared them off.”

“We’ve been driving so long, they’ve probably already left! With their stolen property!”

“Oh?” She hummed absentmindedly as she opened the mission briefing on her tablet. “Well, says here that the plane isn’t supposed to arrive until 3 AM. And, it’s only 2 AM. We have time, Devineaux.”

“And what if the plane arrives early?!”

“It will not. I assure you. Have you ever been on an airplane, Devineaux? They never arrive early. It’s either on time, or five hours late.”

“One can never be careful when one is dealing with La Femme Rouge, Ms.Argent.”

“I suppose so.” She studied the mission briefing, reading it closer, as she had merely skimmed it earlier. “Now, what exactly would Carmen Sandiego want with a supply of Wondrium?”

“Well, what does anyone want with it? To give themselves superpowers, of course. Ms.Argent, have you been living under a rock since the Cataclysm?”

“The Cataclysm was fifty years ago, Mr.Devineux, all the way back in 1982. Neither of us were born yet.”

Devineaux muttered something under his breath, but didn’t reply to that.

“Well, we already know that Ms.Sandiego is an Amélioré. Why would she need powers, if she already has them? And what other use would a thief have for Wondrium?”

“Who knows the reasons of a thief! We are not psychologists, Ms.Argent. We are agents of the BFAA. Would you mind keeping your rambling to your own mind? I am trying to drive.”

“Yes, monsieur.”

* * *

“Located at the tippy-top of Europe, Finland is one of two Nordic countries, and one of five total countries, in the Fennoscandian Peninsula.”

“It’s been rated the happiest country in the world, despite freezing temperatures. The country experiences winters that can be as long as five months, and the coldest temperature ever was negative sixty degrees fahrenheit!”

“Even their winters are beautiful, though. The Northern Lights, Midnight Sun, and Polar Night can all be seen from Finland.”

“Alongside its beloved landscape, Finland also prides itself on education, which is public, all the way up to university.”

“And upon graduating from one of these universities, those with PhDs participate in a special ceremony, in which they receive both a hat, and a  _ sword _ . And if that’s not incentive to learn, i don’t know what is.”

“So, if this place is so great.” Zack’s voice cut in. “Then why are we here?”

The chill of the Finnish air bit at Carmen’s nose, and she pulled her coat a bit tighter around herself. Despite being the busiest airport in Finland, at night, Helsinki Airport appeared devoid of life. Though, of course, it was likely more active inside the actual building.

She, Zack, and Ivy were perched atop the building’s roof, shielded from the whipping winds by an air conditioning unit. 

“To intercept a package.” The bird on Carmen’s shoulder spoke. Or, well, Player spoke through the bird.

Though it appeared strange, the bird’s presence had become a fact of life, ever since it had flown through her window at the VILE Academy of Supervilliany. It wasn’t a real bird, of course, but it was a surprisingly realistic animatronic of one. Player had told her that it was intended to be a type of bird known as a Macaw. Though she’d yet to see one in real life, Player said she may one day, if a mission ever took them to a South American rainforest.

Zack and Ivy found it strange. She thought it was badass.

Carmen nodded in agreement with the bird. 

“Player decrypted material on the harddrive indicating that VILE intends to intercept a plane here, tonight.”

“Isn’t the harddrive like, old, though?” Ivy questioned.

“They’ve been planning it for a long time. This isn’t a low-stakes mission.”

“A very important cargo will be delivered here tonight.” Player elaborated. “A hospital in Manitoba uncovered an old supply of Wondrium in their stores, several months ago.”

“Isn’t that stuff banned?”

“Mhm. But this store was undiscovered. No one had touched it since they thought Wondrium was some kinda miracle drug. It’s being transported to a secure holding facility in New Zealand. But, first, it’s making a stop here, to switch pilots.”

“There’s a very narrow window that the cargo will be on the ground.” Carmen continued. “A window that VILE plans to exploit.”

“So, then, what are we doing here?” Zack asked.

“Defending the cargo, idiot.” Ivy elbowed him.

“And it seems like its right on time.” Player reported.

His report proved correct a moment later, when engines roared from above, and a jet descended from the clouds. It appeared as a normal cargo jet would, though it wasn’t marked with the logo of any package-carrying company. 

The theives ducked low behind the air conditioning unit as the jet rumbled to a stop on the runway. Even from up here, it was deafening. The expression ‘as loud as a jet engine’ suddenly made sense to her.

For something carrying the most protected substance in the world, it looked incredibly underprotected. That was why she was here, after all.

The pilot’s side door opened, and steps descended, rolling down like a slinky. The pilot and copilot exited, both looking exhausted. An eight hour flight on the graveyard shift would do that to people, Carmen supposed.

And, just like that, the plane was left empty, sitting on the tarmac. With some of the most precious cargo in the world. 

If she didn’t take it now, VILE certainly would. And who knew how long it would take for them to get here? She had to act fast.

She stood, and shrunk back down just as fast.

A familiar car pulled onto the tarmac.

Ivy and Zack looked at each other nervously, but didn’t speak.

More hesitantly, this time, she stood once more, though she barely peered over the air conditioning unit. 

Her suspicions were confirmed. On the tarmac, still spewing exhaust, sat a sleek, beige colored car, imprinted with those familiar words:

“BFAA: Bureau Fédéral des Affaires Améliorés (Federal Bureau of Amélioré Affairs)”

How had they gotten here so fast? Didn’t matter. Her window of time was closing, and fast. She had to think faster.

“Ivy.” Her voice grew firmer than usual as she began to give orders. Even the animatronic bird seemed at attention. “You try to distract the BFAA, as best you can. Zack, you arrange us a quick getaway. I’ll go in, get the Wondrium, and be out as quick as I can. Got it?”

Zack and Ivy nodded in unison. The bird flapped its wings, once.

“Then, go team go.” 

Carmen jumped to the top of the air conditioning unit as Ivy and Zack scurried off in opposite ways. Metal clinked as her hang glider unfolded from her coat. Player’s bird took off.

“Time to fly.” It squawked, and the two took off, towards the plane below.

A gunshot echoed through the air.

* * *

Devineux’s gun hissed smoke from its muzzle as he pulled the trigger. Julia felt her heart skip a beat.

Though he’d never been a good shot, as it seemed, his anger improved his aim. 

The bullet shot true, and struck the red blur, flashing through the sky. Said blur began losing altitude. Rapidly.

Carmen Sandiego struggled mid-air, before a sort of grappling hook shot out from her wrist, and she was yanked to the roof of the plane. 

The bullet hadn’t hit her. Only her hang glider. Thank the stars. She couldn’t believe that her partner would do something so stupid. Even if La Femme Rouge was a criminal, she still didn’t deserve to be shot!

“Hey, what’s that?”

Julia found her tablet yanked from her hands. She spun around, looking behind her, only to see her redheaded assailant disappear into thin air.

“Ooh, mission briefing. Fancy.”

She spun around again, in the direction of the voice. A young redheaded woman stood there, scrolling through the tablet.

“Hey, give that back!” Julia lunged for it, put it disappeared as soon as she nearly had it in her grasp.

“No one ever taught you about finders keepers?” From behind her, again. She growled and spun around.

“This is not a  _ game _ .” She growled. “Local law enforcement has been alerted. I suggest you leave before they get here.”

“Oh, and where are they coming from? The woods? We’re in the middle of nowhere…” She tapped something on the tablet. “Ms.Argent.”

Julia clenched her fists, about to lunge for the laptop again, before she was stopped by echoing sirens in the air.

“Middle of nowhere,huh?”

The redhead went pale. The roar of engines grew closer. Though her shock only last a few moments, by the time she composed herself, three police cars were already pulling onto the tarmac.

“Y’know what, I already gotta’ me one of these things.” She tossed the tablet haphazardly back to Julia, who only barely caught it. In a flash, she was gone.

An accomplice of Sandiego’s, Julia could only assume. One with an accent she could clearly place as being from Boston. 

Well, that was quite the clue.

Around her, car doors opened and slammed shut and the local police force exited their vehicles, looking around in confusion. Wordlessly, Julia pointed towards the plane.

* * *

All this fuss, for a briefcase.

Carmen had had to dig through a shipping container, pick the lock on a sealed box, and clip the padlock on a sealed box  _ inside _ the other one, all for a briefcase.

She knew she shouldn’t look. She didn’t want to risk damaging the cargo. The chemical that had changed the world, as everyone knew it.

She went against her better judgement, and opened the briefcase.

Nestled in black velvet sat an array of vials, each filled with a blue liquid that appeared unassuming.

“Admiring your catch?” A voice sounded behind her, echoing throughout the empty plane. “Well, don’t count your chicks before they hatch.”

She closed the briefcase, and placed it down, before turning around. The macaw on her shoulder bristled in apprehension.

In the low light, Agent Devineaux looked even more intimidating than usual. He held a gun at his side.

“Devineaux.” She replied, doing her best to keep her tone cool. Not looking at the gun. “To what do I owe this honor?”

“I think it is you who owes me something, actually.” His gaze flicked from her to the briefcase behind her. She nudged it back with her foot. “Give me the briefcase.”

She took a deep breath. She didn’t want to have to fight him. But, right now, there wasn’t much of a choice in the matter. Devineaux was a man who didn’t give up till he was beaten.

He leapt back, not expecting the first swing at his face. He traded back a punch of his own, which she dodged with swiftness. In rage, he threw another punch, which she caught effortlessly, before wrapped his arm around his shoulders, and throwing him to the ground. She cringed as he thudded to the floor with a loud  _ crack _ .

She sighed, and picked up the briefcase. He should stay out, at least for a little bit longer. She began heading for the exit.

Only to be stopped, again, by someone appearing in front of her.

Ivy and Zack appeared in a flurry of sparks. Ivy fell to her knees almost immediately, panting with exhaustion. Carmen wondered how much she’d been teleporting today.

“Police down there.” Zack explained, breathless. “We gotta go.”

“But there’s no...car?”

Zack nodded, and turned his gaze to the cockpit of the plane.

“If you insist, getaway man. Get us gone.”

She wasn’t sure whether or not such a thing was actually possible. Zack’s powers, which allowed him to control vehicles, extended to just about any mode of transportation, as he’d demonstrated with various scooters, cars, and, at one point, even a bus. But a plane?

Her doubts were soon proved wrong as the plane’s engines began to roar, and the vessel tore forwards, across the runway. It slowly started gaining lift, and, soon, it was soaring.

“Uh, where to, Carm?” He turned to look at her, nervously. Bright white rings glowed around the pupils of his eyes.

Again, she had to think fast. 

“Back to the airport.” She spoke decisively, as if she’d known it to be the plan the whole time.

“ _ What? _ ”

“Set it on a course back to the airport. Ivy, you think you can handle one more teleport?”

Ivy scrambled to her feet. “Of course I can.”

“Good.” Carmen shoved the briefcase into her hands. “You teleport Zack, and this, back to the hotel room.”

“And, what about you, Carm?”

She glanced back to Devineaux, who lay groaning on the floor. She really hoped she hadn’t broken anything.

“I need to get him back to safety.

Below them, the plane lurched, and Zack gasped. He held his arms out, like he was trying to brace himself against nothing.

She was used to Ivy having issues with controlling her powers, but not Zack. She figured, though, they were twins.

“Zack. Turn the plane back, now.”

He nodded, and the vessel creaked as it turned. It lurched below them again, and she feared the great metal bird would break in twain.

That seemed to be enough to wake Devineaux, who scrambled to his feet and fumbled for his gun.

“Zack, open the rear doors.”

“What?!”

“ _ Zack _ .”

A latch creaked, and the rear doors of the plane swung open, letting in a blast of light.

“You two, get out of here.” She turned to Zack and Ivy, before turning back to Devineaux. Behind her, she heard the trademark  _ zap _ that indicated Ivy’s teleportation. “You.” She spoke to the agent, who was struggling to stay upright. 

Her hang glider extended from her coat. Her duct-tape repair she had performed a few minutes ago wasn’t perfect, but she hoped to god that it would hold.

“Hold on to me, and don’t let go until I tell you to.”

Before he could protest, or even think about protesting, she had wrapped his arms around him, and the two were sailing back towards Earth. Player’s bird followed at their side.

Through the sky, a red blur sailed. Followed by a commercial jetliner.

Devineaux was returned safely to the ground, though the plane’s landing was less ideal. Despite the fleet of squad cars that were scattered across the tarmac, the infamous Carmen Sandiego was not captured that day.

She disappeared into the night, once more.


	2. Origins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After their encounter in Finland, the BFAA lose track of Carmen Sandiego once more. The elusive thief tells a story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Mentions of firearms, animal testing, and non-consensual drug usage

“It just dosen’t make sense!”

Julia Argent pushed her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose. 

“You’ve been saying that for the last hour, monsieur.”

The inspector in question was currently leaning over a low table, poring over a laptop screen. The table was nice, smooth, with even a bit of shine to it. 

After Inspector Devineaux’s utter refusal to get on another plane, the BFAA had put them up in a rather nice hotel in Helsinki. Though Julia had been more than interested in using the opportunity to pursue a self-guided tour around the city, Devineaux insisted she stay with him. Something about needing her to ‘crack the code.’

The code in question involved an email that he had received only a few hours following their altercation at the airport. It was an official BFAA notice, informing them that the stolen vials of Wondrium had been delivered by private plane to a research facility in New Zealand. It’s original, intended destination.

“That does not make it make more sense! Have they tested the Wondrium for...uh...good...for la vérité?”

“Authenticity?” 

“Yes, yes, that. Why must English have so many words?”

“It is a language of loan words, monsieur. It is part of its history.”

“ _Anyways_ , I am long out of English classes, Ms.Argent. Have they tested the Wondrium for authenticity?”

“Yes. They have. And it’s the real deal.”

“Why would _la femme rouge_ return it, if it is as real as they state?” Devineaux shook his head. His gaze had not moved from the briefcase. “Perhaps, if she has already used the Wondrium on herself, she had no need for the rest? But, still, it could have easily been sold, rather than returned.”

“Then, perhaps her intention was not bad in the first place?”

There was a notable silence in the hotel room, before Devineaux began to laugh, with far more intensity than the situation called for. 

“You are ridiculous, Ms.Argent. You almost sound as if you’re on her side!”

“I never said that. I merely suggested that, perhaps, she had good intent. After all, she seemed to be getting along just fine without powers.”

“I don’t know where you’re keeping your stash of wine, Ms.Argent, but I believe you have had enough for the night.”

“I am perfectly sober, monsieur. I merely suggested-”

“Something ridiculous. A thief is a thief. You should know that, by now.” He turned back to the case, and closed it, clicking the latches in place with two satisfying _clacks_ . “I will find _la femme rouge_ , and when I do, then I will understand.”

Julia wondered if he had ever been trained in the theatrical arts, as, right about now, it felt like it.

* * *

The Red Eye’s wings stretched out, cutting through the stiff winds of the Atlantic Ocean. Dawn was on the cusp on arrival, and, in anticipation, the sky had been painted in streaks of bright orange and purple. Below the plane, waves churned. Inside Ivy’s head, gears did the same.

“So, who the heck were those guys?” She asked. Her red hair stuck out in messy clumps around her head. She appeared exhausted, but her voice betrayed nothing.

“Which ones?” Carmen responded to the question with a question. Her gaze turned from the laptop to Ivy.

“The BFAA Italian dudes or whatever.”

“They were French. But, wait, you’ve never heard of the BFAA?”

“We ain’t French, Carm.” Zack replied for her. He looked equally as frazzled as his sister, but nowhere near the same amount of exhaustion was present on his face.

“Well, BFAA stands for Bureau Fédéral des Affaires Améliorés.”

“What’s that in English?”

“The Federal Bureau of Amélioré Affairs. Or, Enhanced Affairs, I suppose. They’re French in origin, hence the name, but their jurisdiction extends to the entirety of the EU. That’s why they were able to follow us to Finland. They’re, uh, I guess powers police would be a good descriptor. They hunt down and, ‘contain,’” She put air-quotes around that last word, “People with powers.”

“Then, why do they care about you? Not like you have powers.” Zack’s words were casual. Ivy glared at him. Player side-eyed him all the way from Ontario.

If Carmen was upset, she certainly didn’t show it. 

“I don’t have powers, but they think I do. They think I’m a superpowered super-thief.”

“Why? What powers do they think you even have?”

“No idea. As for why they’re following me, well, that’s a long story.”

“We won’t be landing in Sri Lanka for another seven and a half hours.” Player pointed out. Even he sounded tired. “Only if you’re comfortable with sharing, though.”

“I’m fine with it.” Carmen looked to Zack. “You really wanna know?”

“Yeah!” The twins spoke in unison, their energy seemingly to having magically been returned to them.

Carmen set the laptop to the side, and began:

* * *

Among others, an Amélioré was always the odd one out. The minority. The black sheep of the flock. 

At VILE Academy of Supervilliany, however, it was quite the opposite. 

“When The Cataclysm struck, superpowers were seen as a danger. A deviation from the norm. And we all know how the world deals with deviations. A gun to the head.”

Coach Brunt stood at the center of the stage, her muscled figure towering over the podium she stood behind. Her tone was firm, and her voice was loud enough to reach even the back of the auditorium. She had no need for a microphone.

“We were shunned.” She continued. “Killed. _Hunted_. They saw what we could do, and they loaded their rifles. You have all had to hide your powers. Some of you have been hunted, attacked, and endangered because of what you can do. 

There will be no such danger at this establishment. Here, you are not the hunted minority. You are the hunters, now.”

She stopped speaking, prompting the crowd to burst out in a cheer.

“We have been rejected by the world above, so now we turn below. V-I-L-E, Valuable Imports, Lavish Exports. We traffic stolen goods to the four corners of the globe. You’ve each been hand-picked for our one year program due to the potential you’ve demonstrated with your powers.

I am Coach Brunt, and these are my house rules. Number one, no contact with the outside world. This means no electronics, no _letters to mommy_ , and no mental communication for all you telepaths. Got that?”

The crowd grumbled in unison.

“Good. Rule number two: First names only, until you get assigned your code name. We all know how the outside world feels about us Améliorés. If anyone were to find out your true identity, you likely wouldn’t make it to the end of the week, and neither would our humble school.”

The crowd’s response this time was neutral, albeit with some echoes of concern. Nowhere, not even here, was safe for them. Some of them likely hadn’t realized this up until that point.

“With that said, I, as well as my fellow faculty, welcome you to VILE academy.” She placed her hands down on the podium.

Carmen knew exactly what was about to happen.

Cracks began to run up the sides of the podium as Brunt pushed more force onto it. In mere seconds, it blew apart, raining splinters of wood across the stage.

The crowd cheered once more. Carmen likely would’ve been among them, had she not seen the exact same thing each and every year.

* * *

“Wait, that dosen’t explain anything.” Zack cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah!” Ivy added. “Why were you at a school for supervillains? Wait were you a supervillain?”

Carmen shook her head. 

“Not quite. From what I’ve been told, I was found as a baby.”

* * *

“VILE Academy was no grade school, but that wasn’t why I was there. I had been brought there by a member of the school’s faculty, who found me lying by the side of the road in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was no supervillain, but I grew up among them.

The isle of VILE was located in, quite truly, the middle of nowhere. A secret island, hidden away from the world. I was, quite literally, the only child on the whole island, which made things… interesting.

I picked up certain habits from growing up around supervillains. Habits like, stealing everything I could get my hands on, and throwing water balloons at the occupants of any ship that dared dock at our pier. 

Yet, despite my antics, I was no supervillain. Every year, I approached the faculty, asking to be admitted to the program. Every year, I was refused. 

I was far too young, they said. Which did make quite a bit of sense, now that I think back on it. I had been raised by a revolving door of babysitters and nannies, and someone who still needed nannying probably wasn't ready to become a supervillain just yet. 

And then I turned sixteen, and all of that changed.

The circle of nannies disappeared, leaving me with independence that I could hardly comprehend. I wreaked havoc throughout the school. So, when the school began experiencing rampant technological issues, I was the first one blamed."

* * *

  
  


All eyes turned to the laptop. Player laughed nervously. 

* * *

  
  


"Even despite the issues, I was admitted into the program. I had roamed the halls of that school for years, but then, it was _different_. It was no longer a place of merrymaking that I stalked, it was a home. With years of experience under my belt, I quickly rose to the top of my classes.

When the day of final exams rolled around, I was quite confident that everything would go just fine. I was a master of lockpicking, catlike in my stealth, and fast as could be when I rappelled. What could go wrong?

The first exam was scheduled for the crack of dawn. Master Shadowsan's favorite time of day. Shadowsan had lost his sight many years prior, but his other senses more than made up for it. He was a master of the sword, and a master in hand to hand combat. 

His combat exam was simple. A vial of Wondrium was hidden somewhere in his coat. All I had to do was find it."

* * *

Carmen and Player spoke in unison:

"And then the power went out."

"The neon green lights that bathed the facility all flickered off, one by one. Screens flashed to black."

"The dates had lined up perfectly. Not only was it exam day, it was also the day that VILE's bookkeeper was to arrive, bringing with her a hard drive containing information that could bring VILE to its knees. I knew I had to stop screwing around, and take my chance."

"Shadowsan thought it was me, at first, but I had been fighting him at the time. It would've been impossible. He called off the exam, and sprinted from the dojo."

"My avatar-" Player's robotic parrot, who was perched on the back on one of the plane's seats, squawked for effect. "-had been waiting nearby for weeks. I disabled the power remotely, and flew in. 

VILE's bookkeeper stood by the terminal, just as panicked as the rest. I saw the hard drive, plugged into its port in the console. I dove. 

The bookkeeper throw my avatar against the wall, but it was designed to fly over the whole world. A slap wasn't going to bring it down. 

It was a fight, and a hilarious one at that. And, as you can see." He wagged the hard drive in front of the camera. "I won."

Carmen smiled, and continued her side of the story:

"After Shadowsan fled, everyone else did, too. A power outage was unprecedented. It had never happened before."

"The bookkeeper blocked the window I had entered through. I had no choice but to venture deeper into the building, searching for an exit. The building had few windows, but I remembered seeing one in the laboratory, through a security camera. I flew there. 

And what was inside was horrifying."

* * *

  
  


The lab was a bright white; a corrugation of sterile tile and stainless steel. It wasn't all too unusual, structure-wise. 

The horrifying thing was the cages. 

Animal cages lined the walls. Rabbits gnawed on branches. Hamsters ran on wheels. Ferrets scrambled about, fighting each other. 

It was a cacophony almost too loud for the parrot to process. 

At the lab's center stood Dr.Bellum and Countess Cleo. In the scientist's hand sat a guinea pig, with spiky, spiny protrusions running along its back. It shook. The avatar's heat mapping sensors barely picked up any life signs from it. 

"This trial was a success." She announced. She put a hand over the animal's back, avoiding the spikes, as it tried to squirm away. "The new formula of Wondrium worked with seemingly no issues."

"Seemingly?" The countess pried. 

"Well, it's hard to tell, with animals. They can't tell you if something is wrong. But there have been no visible side effects."

The countess sighed. "Then, this formula is safe for children?"

"Carmen isn't a child, anymore."

"She's still young. If we're going to do this, we need to make sure it's safe."

"Well, yeah, this formula is safe for children. That's why I made it, after all."

"And we can give it to her in her food?"

"Completely tasteless and odorless. She won't know a thing."

* * *

"Wait." Zack interjected. "They were trying to give you powers? By force?"

Carmen nodded. 

"Key word, try." Player interrupted any further somber conversation. "I wasn't going to let that happen. I'd seen Carmen's name listed on some internal databases."

"Creepy." Ivy said in a sing-song tone. 

"Eh, yeah, a little creepy. But, still. I wasn't going to let that happen. I flew off to find her."

"Let's just say, I was pretty surprised to have a giant bird fly up to me and start talking. Luckily, no one else was around. They'd fled the building. I was looking for Coach Brunt."

"I told her what I'd seen."

"I was terrified. My lack of powers had always held me back, in everything. The faculty had everyone convinced that I had the power of super agility. So, I had to train twice as hard as everyone else. I had wished for them, many times. But that didn't mean I wanted them to be forced onto be, especially not if this new formula was that dangerous."

"I knew that if she stuck around, she wouldn't have that choice. I offered her a way out. There was a boat on the pier, belonging to the bookkeeper."

"And, a few minutes later, I was sailing across the ocean, with a parrot on my shoulder."

"Is it weird to be back, over the ocean?" Ivy questioned. 

Carmen looked out the window. The colors of dawn painted the glass.

"Yeah. A little bit. But now, I'm not running from anyone. I'm doing what's right."


	3. The Teardrop of India Caper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Capers are rarely ever safe. But, before this, Carmen has never feared for her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is long, but I think it turned out pretty well!  
> I apologize to any Sinhala speakers out there. I don't speak Sinhala, and the rominzations used in this are probably not very good, as I used online converters for them.
> 
> Chapter Warnings: Claustrophobia

“Sri Lanka is a small island nation, located just off the Southern coast of the Indian subcontinent, with about 25 thousand square miles of territory.”

“Some believe that the island was originally connected to the Indian mainland through a land bridge, but that land bridge has disappeared over time, leaving a chain of sandbars in its wake. This chain is now known as Adam’s Bridge.”

“So, you can, what, hopscotch from India to Sri Lanka? So cool!”

“Not exactly, Zack.”

“But due to their proximity, the two countries do have many cultural similarities! In fact, Sri Lanka is often called the Teardrop of India”

“Additionally, the oldest tree planted by people is located in Sri Lanka. Its name is Sri Maha Bodhi, and it was planted almost 2000 years ago!”

“Lemme guess, VILE is trying to steal the tree?” Ivy offered.

Carmen smiled. “Not quite. Player, care to explain?”

“I found information on the VILE harddrive stating that a heist would occur here, tomorrow. A local drilling company has been contracted to dig a tunnel underwater, from Sri Lanka to the Ryouko Islands, for the purpose of running internet cables. VILE has their sights set on the drilling machine being used in this operation.”

“Wait, aren’t those things huge? How are they gonna steal one of ‘em?” Ivy asked.

“They have a ship. Its scheduled to dock at port tonight, under the guise of a pleasure cruise. Tomorrow night, their agents-- no word on who-- will break into the drilling site, and hijack the drill.”

“And… how are they going to get it onto the ship? Again, those things are, like, _huge_.”

“They’re going to drive it.”

“But, we’ll be there before they can.” Carmen said. “Zack, that’s where you come in.”

“Wait, hey, wait a second. I don’t know if I can control a _drill_. Is that really a vehicle?”

“You controlled a tractor, right? They’re basically the same.”

“I… guess.”

“Speaking of vehicles.” Player interjected. “We’re landing. Sit down, and hold on tight.”

* * *

“Bohoma stūtiyi!” Carmen thanked the hotel receptionist.

“Oyāva sādarayen piḷigannavā.” The receptionist smiled in return. 

Carmen took the plastic keycard from the desk, waved a final thanks, and turned the corner, heading to her room. The establishment was one of the touristy ones, near the city of Colombo. It was far too busy for Carmen’s comfort, but it was close enough to the drill site that they could get there quickly, and far enough away that they were unlikely to arouse suspicion. 

As far as anyone else was concerned, they were just tourists.

‘Anyone else’ included Ivy and Zack, in this case, as they had spent the entire walk to the hotel oohing and awing at the city. It was quite the remarkable mix of Western and traditional architecture, though the twins were mostly amazed by the former type. 

This hotel appealed thoroughly to that sense of Western architecture. If Carmen hadn’t known better, she may have thought she was in the States, still. 

She stopped before the door to their room, and unlocked it. The inside had just as much Western influence as the rest of the building.

Ivy and Zack, though, had far more important priorities than analyzing the city’s architectural influences. They were, for lack of better words, fucking exhausted. Almost as soon as Carmen had opened the door, they were on the beds.

It was quite understandable why they were so tired. The fight back at Helsinki Airport had taken a lot out of them. Ivy had put some strain on her powers while distracting Ms.Argent, and Zack had used his to their limit with controlling that plane. Carmen just hoped that they would be up to another fight tomorrow. Zack especially. If he couldn’t control the drill, then they were, again for lack of a better word, screwed.

She trusted them, though, even more than she trusted herself. They had done more on less sleep. There was someone she was worried about, though. 

She took her laptop from its bag, and set it on the desk. Her earbuds buzzed to life as she opened it. 

Player didn’t connect as quickly as he usually did. He only did so after she pinged him. 

The kid looked tired. He stared blankly at the camera for a moment, before seeming to come to life after realizing that he was on call.

“Hey, Red. You make it okay?”

“Just fine. We have to be quiet, though.” She moved out of the way of the camera, so that he could see Zack and Ivy’s sleeping forms on the beds.

“Ah.” Player quieted down his input volume as Carmen moved back in front of the screen. “Alright. Uh, how’s the hotel?”

“The hotel is fine. I think I could stand to brush up on my Sinhala, though.”

“Mhm.” He mumbled. His eyes began to flutter closed.

“What time is it over there?”

“Uh… Like, seven PM.”

“Have you slept since last night?”

“I- well, I was doing research. About this caper.”

“So that’s a no?”

“...yeah. And you haven’t slept either.”

“You’re years younger than me. You need more rest. Besides, I’m going to sleep. So, maybe you should too?”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“Goodnight, Play-”

“Wait! Wait, there’s, I forgot to show you something.” He turned from tired to frantic in an instant, and began typing erratically on his keyboard. 

An image popped up on the screen. It was clearly from a security camera, and was a bit fuzzy, but discernible. And what could be discerned from it was particularly worrying.

“I spotted Ms.Argent and Mr.Devineux departing from a flight about the same time as you landed.”

“How are they here? Does the BFAA even have jurisdiction here?”

“I don’t think so. But I doubt that would stop them. Remember their arrest in Cairo, back in November? That’s not in the EU, either. That’s not the problem, though.”

The image zoomed in on two figures behind the BFAA agents. One was a woman with platinum blonde hair, tied into a bun. The other was a man, just slightly taller than her, with a squared jaw and short black hair. They both wore fine, grey suits, as well as odd, green-tinted glasses. 

“Those are- Are they?”

“The same people that were following you in Zambia? Yep.”

“Do we know who they are?”

“No. I can’t find any information on them, not even names. But they look government.”

“I’ll watch out for them. Don’t worry yourself about it.”

The image disappeared from the screen.

“Alright. Goodnight, Carmen.”

“Goodnight, Player.”

She closed the laptop, and slept till the afternoon.

* * *

As far as Carmen was concerned, all cities were prettier at night. 

Without sunlight, the buildings and streets were illuminated only by artificial light, which bathed the concrete in kaleidoscope of colors. Though, that was only part of the beauty. At night, the majority of people weren’t at work, and, therefore, the streets were bustling. People were being people. It was the beauty of civilization.

“So, you are engineers?” The taxi driver asked. “Where from?”

“New Zealand.” Carmen answered. “We’re here for contract work.”

“You have travelled quite far. They must need your expertise.” The driver smiled. “How are you liking the city?”

“It’s beautiful. I really wish I could stay longer. It’s a very short contract.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. It’s surprising, that they would hire foreigners to work on this tunnel. No offense to you, of course. Did you hear what happened in it, though?”

Carmen quirked an eyebrow. “No, I haven’t. What happened?”

“It was under lockdown for months. It was really gone for a six. A cache of Wondrium was discovered, hidden in these fake rocks. The federal police got involved. They just reopened.”

“A cache of Wondrium? That’s scary.”

“Mhm. They fired the employee involved, but rumor has it they couldn’t find all of the rocks. There’s still some down there also.”

“I’ll be wary of that, then. Thank you.” 

“Of course. Be safe out there. Or, here.”

The taxi took a sharp turn, rolling onto a gravel lot before stopping.

They had arrived.

Carmen handed the driver the formerly agreed upon amount of money, and climbed out of the vehicle. Ivy and Zack followed her example. 

The construction site looked desolate. It appeared as though it should’ve been bustling, as was evidenced by the numerous pieces of equipment and materials strewn about. But, as far as Carmen could see, there were only two people there. 

They approached the tall, electric fence that surrounded the site. Its gate warned of electricity in the three languages of the island: Sinhala, Tamil, and English. The warning was accompanied by a large image of a red lightning bolt.

Carmen didn’t have a good feeling about this. But she would much rather deal with this than let VILE use that tunneling drill for whatever nefarious ends they had for it.

“Hey, Carm are you sure this is the right place?” Ivy whispered.

“Yeah. It looks kinda like a dump.” Zack added.

“It’s the right place, for sure. Just, stay behind me.”

They approached the gate, suspicion hanging over them as Ivy and Zack scanned the surrounding area.

“Helō! Api iṁjinēruvan!” She called out. The two people inside, who seemed to have been inspecting a piece of machinery, looked up at her.

They approached. Something felt oddly familiar about them.

“Hello.” One of them spoke. She was a woman, with platinum blonde hair hanging messily around her face. She wore odd, green-tinted sunglasses.

“Do you speak English?” The other asked. He was a man, with short black hair and something clasped in his hand, wearing the same green-

Carmen felt her blood run cold. She was suddenly reminded that she was wearing her trademark red coat and hat.

“Yes, I do speak English. We’re the engineers, from New Zealand.” She attempted to stay calm. Nothing was wrong. Stopping VILE was more important. It was _always_ more important.

“Oh, yes.” The woman smiled. “Come on in, then.”

She unlocked the gate from the inside and opened one side of it, allowing Carmen, Zack and Ivy entrance. Immediately after, she closed it. And locked it.

“Carmen? Carmen, what’s going on?” Player asked in her earpiece. She couldn’t reply.

“We’ve been having some issues with our tunneling drill.” The man explained. He wasted no time, and was already leading them towards the tunnel’s entrance. “You’re from the manufacturing company, right?”

“Yep.”

The entrance hole looked like an entrance into the abyss. It must’ve been ten feet in diameter, at least. There were light fixtures in the part that was visible, but they were turned off. The entrance was held up by two steel supports.

That didn’t seem safe.

“Where’s the tunneler?” She asked, keeping her professionalism about her. 

“In one of the tunnels.” The woman explained. “It broke down. I’ll guide you.” She took a flashlight from a hip holster and turned it on.

“Sounds great. Charlie, Dixie,” Carmen turned to Zack and Ivy. “would you be okay staying up here? I know you can get a bit claustrophobic.”

“Sure thing, Abby.” Ivy smiled. Concern shone in her eyes. 

“Alright. Let’s go.” Carmen turned back to the woman. She nodded stoically, and began to lead her into the tunnel entrance. The flashlight bit through the darkness, but it only let them see a few feet ahead, and nothing more.

The tunnel sloped gently downwards, so walking was far from an issue. Though, a few times, Carmen nearly tripped over stray rocks.

It took mere moments for the darkness to swallow them, and for the surface to be no longer visible. The tunnel was large enough for the two women to walk side by side, but there was only about a foot’s worth of room on either side of them. The ceiling was maybe three feet above Carmen’s head. 

Her heart was pounding in her chest. Though she knew it was an illusion, the air felt to be growing thin.

“So, how long have you been working here?” She asked, trying to keep herself calm.

“About a year.” The woman replied clinically. The flashlight illuminated, ahead of them, a fork in the road. Three tunnels split off from the central one. They took the one to the left.

“That’s nice. It-”

Carmen was cut off by an explosion. Then, everything went black.

* * *

The explosion was deafening.

Ivy wasn’t even sure what had happened. The man had pressed a button on some device in his hand, the steel supports had snapped in half, and the tunnel had caved in.

It didn’t matter what had happened. That could come later. All that mattered right now was the phrase repeating in her mind.

_Carmen’s in there. Carmen’s in there._

Her and Ivy were by the entrance in a second. The man, stoic as ever, and as bad at acting as the mayor dude in their elementary school production of Les Miserables, said:

“Oh, goodness. What is- What happened?”

“What did you do?” Ivy snapped.

“I didn’t do-” The walkie talkie on his belt went off. He grabbed it and listened in panic as a voice emitted from it.

“Didn’t go as planned! Cave in in the main tunnel! Fucking cave in! Help!”

The transmission ended. Zack and Ivy glared at the man, their eyes daggers.

“What did you _do_.”

“I didn’t do anything! I-”

“Ivy, come on!”

Zack stood, and began running towards a crane. Hanging from its cable was another one of those steel supports.

Ivy knew exactly what he was about to do.

He clambered into the cockpit, though he touched none of the controls. The machine roared to life, and it began to move at unnatural speeds. He dropped the steel support onto the rocks that now covered the tunnel’s entrance, which exploded into dust, spraying out into the surrounding area. 

And, with that, Zack and Ivy rushed in.

* * *

Carmen was running. That was all she knew. She was running. Her feet slammed into rock as her legs pumped like pistons. Her lungs heaved for air that wasn’t there.

Behind her, rocks fell, threatening to crush her. Dust sprayed into the tunnel, stinging at her eyes. 

The woman still ran at her side. Her flashlight beam barely illuminated anything, as she was too panicked to aim it. 

Without stopping her sprint for a second, Carmen pulled out her earpieces. She couldn’t see them, but this was a motion she had performed hundreds of times.

She put the front part of one earpiece into the back of another. They flashed, lighting up the tunnel for a moment, before they unfolded.

In a split second, the earpieces were gone, and Player’s macaw was flying next to her. The woman looked to be in shock, and shouted:

“What the fuck!”

Carmen didn’t grace her with a reply.

“Player, fly ahead, find us a way out.”

The bird didn’t nod, as birds didn’t do that. It flew ahead wordlessly, soon disappearing into the darkness.

“What the hell was that thing?!”

“Dosen’t matter! Who the hell are you!”

“I can’t tell you that!”

The woman’s foot caught on a rock, and she fell to the ground. Carmen grabbed her arm, all but yanking her back to her feet.

That was close. A rock fell merely a foot behind her.

She felt a crunch under her foot. She hadn’t realized that the woman had dropped her flashlight.

Now instead of being mostly dark, the tunnel was now completely dark. Great!

She couldn’t see the macaw as it returned, but she could hear as it cawed:

“Side tunnel up ahead, leads to surface. Follow me!” With a click, the lights embedded in the bird’s eyes flicked to life. They weren’t nearly as bright as the flashlight, but they helped.

The woman skidded to a stop beside her. Carmen realized with a start that they had come to another fork in the tunnel, though this time there were only two options.

The macaw flapped at one tunnel. “This way!”

“No way in hell am I going with your stupid bird!”

“It’s the way to the surface.” Carmen snapped back. She was losing her patience.

The woman didn’t listen. She had already gone down the other tunnel.

A small rock struck Carmen’s shoulder. She had to keep going. The cave-in wasn’t going to stop for anyone. The macaw took off down the tunnel, and she followed.

Blissfully, it was only a few more yards to the side tunnel. Carmen turned on a dime, and out of the main tunnel. It collapsed as soon as she did.

The side tunnel was even smaller than the main one. It seemed slightly taller, but it was far narrower. She couldn’t see the surface in the distance, but its light reached even the tunnel’s entrance. There were other tunnels leading off of this one. Presumably, this served as an exit tunnel for all of the tunnels.

The macaw stopped suddenly, as its headlights reflected off of a pair of eyes.

“La femme rouge!”

Carmen’s heart skipped a beat.

Ahead of her, in the tunnel, stood Inspector Chase Devineaux.

He dove to tackle her, and she barely got out of the way in time. She caught his next punch, though.

She must’ve run miles in the last few minutes. Her muscles felt limp, and her limbs sluggish. 

He swung again. This one struck her in the jaw. She stumbled backwards. The dust had burned at her eyes so much that she could hardly see. 

They traded punches, back and forth, with one side clearly winning, but the other not giving up. Gradually, they neared the entrance.

She could hear the cave-in nearing. It had been slow to spread to the side tunnel. But it was still spreading. A rock fell, striking the ground hollowly. Then another. And another.

She was too focused on that to notice the punch swinging directly at her face. And, then, it wasn’t there anymore.

Ivy shoved Devineaux out of the way, with Zack hot on her tail. Carmen stumbled back. 

The cave-in spread nearer. Another rock struck her, this time on the back. It stung. It stung so badly. She looked up, just to see how far the crack had spread.

A rock was inches away from her head. One that was easily as big as her torso. It would kill her, if it hit her.

Carmen felt the breath knocked from her lungs. The last thing she saw was Ms.Argent’s face. Then, the dust covered everything.

She hardly remembered the next few moments. A hand on her arm, a strong arm over her shoulders, then ground beneath her.

She blinked her eyes a few times, clearing them of dust as best as she could, before opening them. She struggled to her feet. Her muscles protested vehemently.

Around her stood Ivy, Zack, Devineaux, and Ms.Argent. Player’s macaw perched on her shoulder. They were all covered in dust.

And, they all stared at the sea.

A small, but well-kept, cruise ship pulled away from shore. On its deck, secured with an array of bungee cords, was the tunneling drill.


	4. Stepping Out of the Eye of the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmen comes to terms, Julia doesn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Depictions of migraines, self-loathing, depictions of respiratory issues, non-consensual drug use, kidnapping

It was quite safe to say that, in that moment, Julia Argent was dying.

At the very least, she certainly felt like she was. 

The right side of her head was ablaze; throbbing in a steady rhythm. Every tick of the clock seemed to ignite her pain anew.

The hotel room had been quite warm, just a few moments ago. Sri Lanka was quite the destination for more adventurous snowbirds, after all. But, now, the whole bedroom was frozen, and the cold felt to be seeping into Julia’s bones.

It had only seemed to start after she had attempted to sleep. Almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, the air had turned to liquid nitrogen, and she’d scrambled out from under the covers.

The bedroom was small, as it was only adjoined to the main hotel room, so she’d had no reason to suspect that it would have its own air conditioning unit. And, based upon her quick scan, it didn’t.

Her original plan had been to escape the cold by fleeing to the main part of the room. She’d scrambled back to a sitting position, and, then, the pain had hit.

Her hands shot to her temples, as if that would quell the throbbing. The chill of the air seemed to be seeping into her muscles, now, leaving her unable to move. Her eyelids fluttered closed. She feared sleep; there was no way to know if she would ever open her eyes again if she closed them now.

She imagined that this was what hypothermia was like. A complete detachment from your body. Your mind willing your limbs to move, but your limbs doing nothing of the sort.

The terror of being locked into a body she couldn’t control.

She struggled to remain in control, but could only manage to pry her eyes open. When she did so, it felt off. As if someone else was opening her eyes for her. Of course, that made no sense.

The room was hazy and cold. Ripples seemed to be cast over her entire vision, as if she were staring at a reflection of the room in the water. The windows were bent into odd arcs, the end table had morphed into a dome-like structure, and the porcelain vases on the table in the corner appeared to be floating. The distortions shifted every time her headache throbbed. 

With a bit more fighting, she managed to get control of her hands and arms; enough so to wipe her eyes, at least. 

Her vision cleared somewhat. The windows became square, the table flattened, and-

And the vases were still floating.

Panic gripped at Julia’s throat. The three white porcelain vases-- engraved and embellished with a multitude of pastelled designs-- bobbed along, as if they floated on the surface of the water. But they were, very much, floating in the air.

That wasn’t supposed to happen!

A knock on the door threw her from her trance of panic. All at the once, the vases flung themselves in random directions-- one smashed down onto the table, one slammed into the wall, and another simply dropped to the carpet.

“Come in.” She stammered. She felt as though a mint candy rested on her tongue, stinging it with crystals of cold.

The door creaked open. Chase Devineaux walked in, glanced at the mess, and looked to Julia. She was reminded suddenly of when she first met him, and she had misheard his name. “Chase Deviner” she had heard-- with ‘deviner’ translating directly to ‘to guess.’ He certainly looked to be guessing now.

“C'était une bourrasque.” Julia explained quickly, gesturing to the open window and the hissing wind outside of it. She hoped he was focused enough on whatever else to believe her. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Ms.Argent. Um, I’m going to call that number now. I assumed you would want to... be there?”

His tone was one of nerves and regret. Julia realized with a start just how much sweat was pouring down her forehead. It was freezing, and its claws left streaks of numb skin in their wake. She could only imagine how her hair looked, as well. 

He averted his gaze. She wished for her hair to be back to its groomed state, and, in an instant, it was.

“Yeah. Let’s call the number.” She put on her best smile, and stood. Her legs shook. She told them to stop shaking, and they did.

Devineaux turned, eager as anything to get out of there. She followed, close on his heels. She had the same desire.

The main part of the hotel was much larger than the adjoining bedroom. A kitchenette was nestled in the corner, next to a common area that included both a couch and a television. It was an awfully nice accommodation, considering that they were only booked here for a night. 

Devineaux made his way over to the kitchen counter, with Julia hovering at his side the whole time. On the counter, standing out starkly against its beige countertop, was a business card. It was white in color, with blue stylings. In the center was a logo-- a circle criss-crossed by two circles, which cut the circle into nine sections. Below the logo was a phone number. It seemed oddly thick for a business card-- almost 2 centimeters thick, in fact. 

The card had been given to Devineaux by the black-haired spectacled man at the dig site. He had said next to nothing, only briefly muttering: “Appelez nous quand vous êtes prêts.” -- ‘Call us when you are ready.’

They had wondered about a mistranslation. The man overpronounced his s’s, and clearly wasn’t a native French speaker. Somehow, though, he knew that she and Devineaux were, which wouldn’t exactly be a common assumption, considering they were in Sri Lanka. Sure, French had become more important as a world language after sovereign Quebec had absorbed the rest of Canada, and much of the USA, but  _ still _ .

The whole situation had peaked their interest just enough to follow through. Or, it had peaked Devineaux’s interest enough, as he believed that this strange man must, in some way, be related to La Femme Rouge. Julia thought it was too risky, but what did she know?

Devineaux turned on his smartwatch and activated the holographic dial pad. Without an ounce of hesitance, he entered the phone number on the card, and pressed ‘call.’

The watch rung once. A loud hissing began.

Both of their gazes immediately turned to its source: The card.

It had sprung to life-- somehow doubling in height. Tiny nozzles stuck out from the sides, spitting a sea green gas. 

Julia began to feel very, very tired.

The feeling was a sickly sweet one. As soon as the gas filled her lungs, drowsiness was forced upon her, but it felt oh, so inviting. 

The world blurred, and turned black. 

* * *

It had been Player’s idea to go to the hospital. It had been Carmen’s idea to refuse.

They said she needed to. Zack, Ivy, and Player insisted that just because she was coughing, she needed to go to the emergency room.

That wasn’t true. She would be fine. Coughing was normal. She just needed to cough up the dust, then she would be fine.

And, ultimately, she was the leader, though she didn’t deserve to be. Player had sent in the Red Eye, and they’d boarded it. Now, they were en route to Missouri, so that Carmen could fail yet another mission.

Another cough wracked her lungs, burning at her throat. She took a quick, panting breath in an attempt to get her breath back and wrapped her red coat tighter around herself. It felt to be freezing on the plane, though she knew it wasn’t. Player kept the temperature comfortable.

“I’m fine.” She spoke preemptively, making eye contact with Zack and Ivy. The twins stared at her with miffed expressions.

“You are not.” Player’s voice crackled from the laptop. “How much dust did you breathe in, exactly?”

“It’s not important.”

“We can still land, can’t we, Player?” Ivy asked. “We’re over, what, Czechoslovakia?”

“Egypt.” Player corrected.

“We aren’t landing.” Carmen snapped. “Seriously. I’m fine.”

“Carm, what the hell has gotten into you?” Zack sounded more serious than, well, more serious than Carmen had ever seen him. He was wasting his energy. “You sound awful.”

“And didn’t you say that we don’t need to be in Missouri for like, a day? We have time to go to the hospital.” Ivy added.

“What has gotten into me? What the hell has gotten into you?! I failed!”

Something in Carmen snapped. How could they not understand? She had failed! She had acted stupidly and she had failed!

A silence hung for a moment, until Ivy spoke:

“Who the fuck cares?”

“Yeah, Carm. So what if you didn’t stop VILE this one time?” Zack added.

“We thought you were gonna die! We couldn’t see you!”

“We thought you  _ were  _ dead!”

“What matters is that you’re okay now.” Player sounded sterner than any child ever should. 

“I can’t fail.” Carmen said. “I can’t let VILE win.”

“Next time we’ll win. No crazy cave-ins are going to happen. I think that’s kinda a one-time only kind of thing.” Ivy reassured. “Cause that was bullshit.”

Carmen sighed. They were right, she hoped.

“I guess.”

* * *

Julia’s wrists  _ hurt _ .

It was her first conscious thought as she emerged from the depths of unconsciousness. Something bit into her wrists, and the pain radiated out into her arms.

Her eyelids fluttered open. The world solidified around her, and it was grey, and cold.

The room she sat in was square, with dark grey tiled walls, and no door in sight. It was dim, and whatever light there was came from an unknown source. Beside her, Devienaux was seated as well. She attempted to rub her eyes, but found her hands immobilized-- handcuffed.

Her heart pounded in her throat. Though, her being handcuffed was far from the scariest thing in that moment. That title would have to go to the fact that, standing on the other side of the room, were two people in suits. One of which they’d met at the dig site-- the man who had given them the keycard-- and the other who she did not recognize-- a woman with black hair in a ponytail.

“Bonsoir.” The woman said cooly. 

“Qu’est que c’est que tu veux!” Devineaux snapped, demanding to know the strangers’ intentions.

There was no response. The man moved robotically, slowly, as he reached into his coat. Julia twisted in her seat, straining against the cuffs that kept her restrained there. She wasn’t going to die. She wasn’t. Not after everything. Not after surviving a cave-in! But, in this moment, there didn’t seem to be much of a choice.

The man pulled out a pen.

The tension lessened, but her heartbeat stayed at the same drumming pace.

He dropped the pen. Its tip struck the tile floor with a ping. From its end appeared a hologram.

Julia attempted to rub her eyes-- to verify that this was real-- but remembered that her hands were still cuffed. Regardless, it still seemed very, very real. As real as the vases had been.

“Hello, Ms.Argent, Mr.Devineaux.” She said with a smile. She was taller, with short, coiled hair and long eyelashes. All color was washed from her, as she was portrayed only by the blue hologram. “It’s good to finally be able to speak to you.”

“Bonjour, Ms.Argent et Mr.Devineaux.” The black-haired woman translated monotonically. “C’est bien de pouvoir enfin vous parler.”

“We can speak English, ma’am.” Julia spoke, her voice quivering.

“What is it that you want?!” Devineaux snapped. He jerked against the chair he was restrained to. “Who are you!”

“You can call me Chief. As for what I want,” Chief smiled, approaching. The pen stayed put, but the hologram seemed to move in physical space. “I want your help in capturing Carmen Sandiego.”

Devineaux stopped struggling. He simply stared at Chief.

“Vous pouvez m'appeler-” The translator began.

“No, no, I understood.” Devineux shook his head. “Who are you? You aren’t from the BFAA, are you?”

“No, not quite.” A smile curved onto the corners of Chief’s lips. “But our organizations are close. You see, Mr.Devineaux, I work for an agency that operates from the shadows. We have one purpose, and one purpose alone. One prey. We are on the tail of an organization called VILE. Ever heard of them?”

“No.” Devineaux answered. Julia silently shook her head.

“This is because, officially, they do not exist. But you have seen what they can do. I am quite sure that this organization has been behind every major crime in recent years. Financial market manipulation, the black market, and just about everything to do with Wondrium. I have been on their tail for many, many years. And I believe that we, now, are closer than ever to finding them.”

“If you do not mind my asking, ma’am, what is it that is making them so difficult to track?” Julia questioned. “If they have committed so many high-profile crimes, shouldn’t they have already been stopped?”

“Well, Ms.Argent, to track something, you must first prove that it exists. And this VILE is so elusive, that we have not been able to accomplish this just yet. Thi-”

“What does this have to do with La Femme Rouge?” Devineaux bit impatiently.

Chief frowned, but answered: “Think about it, Mr.Devineaux. Carmen Sandiego’s crimes seem quite random, do they not? A pallet of spices in Cairo, a briefcase of Wondrium in Finland, a tunneling drill in Sri Lanka. We believe that Carmen Sandiego is no independant thief. She is an agent of VILE.” Her frown upturned. “And, if we can find her, and find out what she knows, then we can bring about the end of VILE.”

“And why should we help you?” Devineaux practically growled.

“For one thing, we can give you the resources to finally track down La Femme Rouge.” She said those last words with a smile, and the worst French accent Julia had ever heard. “And, for another, you have already been transferred from the BFAA to our ranks.”

The man and the woman stepped forwards, each holding a thin card in a hand. The man approached Devineaux, and the woman approached Julia. They handed them the cards, before moving back to the wall.

“Agent Devineaux, Agent Argent.” Chief smiled. “Welcome to ACME.”


	5. The Last Caper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Me for him. I'll come back to the island."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Blood, threats

Carmen wanted to sleep for a thousand years.

She didn’t usually get tired. She was a master thief with enough energy to keep going for days, all without rest. If there was anything she was grateful to VILE for, it was that.

But, as she learned in the only science class she had ever been in, everything that goes up, must come down. And though she could keep going, she would always crash in the end. 

And that was where she was, now. Crashing.

They’d made it to Missouri. That was as far as Carmen’s energy went, as well. She may as well have been dragged by Ivy and Zack to the hotel where they’d holed up for the night.

Currently, she laid on a couch, with a thin linen sheet loosely draped over her. She stared at the ceiling, her limbs feeling like lead and her mind feeling like mush.

And yet, she could not sleep.

Her gaze stayed firm, locked on the ceiling. A popcorn ceiling had sat there, at one point, but had since been stripped away when the dangers of asbestos had been discovered. It had since been stripped away, leaving only the white drywall beneath. She examined the plaster’s slopes and curves and divets.

They reminded her of the ceiling of the tunnels.

Covered in tiny, microscopic cracks, which built, together, a grand spiderweb of splinters. A sinking feeling struck at her heart, but it was quickly calmed when she remembered that she was no longer in that tunnel. The ceiling of this hotel was stable. It wasn’t going to fall anytime soon.

Her mind knew that. The heartbeat pounding in her head, not so much.

She watched the cracks on the ceiling morph and turn in a mindless fuzz of beige. They shifted into a vague approximation of…

Eyes.

Carmen would know those eyes anywhere. Wide and black and deep, like the darkness of space had been condensed into those two endless pools.

Those were the eyes of Julia Argent.

They were wide, and terrified. Like in the tunnels. Like when she had saved her and tackled her and she could’ve gotten herself hurt and oh god what if she wasn’t okay what if-

“Carmen?”

The voice shot her from her trance, and she jerked up into a sitting position. It was Julia’s voice. Why was she here? Why was-

“Carmen, everything okay?”

No. It wasn't Jul- Agent Argent. It was Player.

She turned to the laptop that was set up at a nearby coffee table. It was the only light in the otherwise pitch-black room, and the image it projected was reflected by the smooth, black table it sat on.

“I’m fine, Player.” Carmen nodded, brushing her hair from her face. She noted that she was still wearing her coat. She must’ve been too tired to take it off upon returning. “What… what time is it?”

“About two in the morning, where you are in the states.”

“So three am for you?”

“Mhm.”

“Player…”

“I know, I know. But this is important. And I napped today!”

“Okay, if you say so.” Carmen smiled. “What is it?”

“So, the heist in Missouri wasn’t supposed to happen for a week, yeah?”

“Mhm.”

“And that VILE dosen’t have any missions planned until then?”

“Yes?”

“You see, about that…” Before he even finished his sentence, Carmen was hanging her head in disappointment. She didn’t have the energy for this shit. “My sources are reporting VILE activity in Japan.”

“In Japan? What could they want there?”

“From what I can gather, it has something to do wit ha scientist named Dr. Maxwell Glass.”

“Let me guess-”

The two spoke in unison: “An expert on Wondrium.”

Player nodded. “And a police report has just been filed. He’s missing.”

“Kidnapped?”

“You hit the nail on the head.”

Carmen met his tired gaze. The two of them sat like that for a moment, mutually exhausted.

“Can you get the plane this late?” She asked.

“Yeah. It should be there in-” He stopped abruptly as he yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. “It should be there in an hour.”

“And as soon as it arrives, you’re going to sleep.”

Player smiled somberly. “Roger that.”

* * *

Around Julia, the room melted.

That’s what it felt like, at least. The wallpaper drooped into giant globs, hanging from the walls. The carpet seemed to ripple, as if pebbles had been thrown into it, and it was a still pond.

“Ms.Argent.”

Her gaze snapped upwards to the holographic woman standing in front of her. Even she appeared to be melting. Her eyes ran down her face, and her hair dripped onto the floor. Julia did her very best to stay still as the world swam around her. 

“Yes, Chief?”

“Did you hear me?”

“No. I’m sorry, can you repeat yourself?”

Chief looked displeased, but nodded. She turned back to the holographic screen that was projected beside her. Otherwise, the room they stood in was barren, with grey tiled walls and no windows to be seen. 

The words on the screen were incomprehensible, and only a small portion of them seemed to be in English. Others were in French, but she was sure that she could also see something written in the Arabic script, as well as Korean and Japanese. How far-reaching was this organization?

She didn’t think too much on that, and instead focused on the text that she could read. Well, read was somewhat of an overstatement. She looked at what looked like the English section, and stared at the goopy white text that bled. She could only hope that Chief didn’t notice how bug-eyed she looked.

Below the text was a map, outlined in white, that displayed an aerial view of Japan. 

“At 0100 hours this morning, Dr. Maxwell Glass, a researcher employed by a research institute in the Osaka prefecture, was reported as missing. My sources are reporting that VILE may have been involved.”

“Carmen Sandiego has never done something like this before.” Chase muttered at her side. He stared at the screen with utmost scrutiny. His brown hair dripped down his neck.

“We have no evidence that this is Carmen Sandiego’s doing.” Chief countered. “But, you’re right. This is out of character for VILE. And that’s what it must be taken seriously.”

Chase nodded. “When do we fly out?”

“As soon as you can get to the airport.” Chief grinned. The edges of her lips rolled down her face. “Are you two ready for your first mission with ACME?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Chase nodded.

Julia nodded, but all she could ready do was hope she didn’t faint. Standing was hard enough, but an entire mission? 

“Yeah. I’m ready.” She murmured. 

* * *

“While in English we know this country as Japan, in Japanese it as known as Nippon, which translates to the land of the rising sun. It’s named as such due to Japan being the first country to see the sunrise on a new day.”

“Not quite, Player. The first country to see the sun on a new day varies throughout the year. It’s name that as the sun rises earlier in Japan than in China.”

“You’ve got me there. Though, Japan isn’t all one land mass. In fact, it consists of over 6800 islands!”

“Is that why there’s so many people there?” Zack questioned.

“Well, not quite.” Player answered. “While there’s over 6800 islands, only 430 of them are inhabited. Specifically, today we’ll be landing on Honshu, the most populous island.”

“Where are we landing, Player?” Carmen rubbed an eye, which was darkly circled by exhaustion. She leaned back in her seat on the plane.

“The Osaka Prefecture.”

“I know that, but  _ where _ ?”

“Um…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Player shook his head. He looked exhausted, even though he had slept a few hours prior. It hadn’t been nearly long enough. “You’ll be landing at the Osaka Port.”

“Oh.”

“What? What’s wrong with the Osaka port?” Ivy sat up, as she had been slumped in her seat.

“Have you heard of the Kaiho Gang Wars?” Carmen turned to her.

“Uh, no? I’m not a history buff, believe it or not.”

“Not really history.” Player answered in Carmen’s stead. “They were only fifteen years ago. An amélioré liberation group took over the port. Officially, its under government control, but it’s not.”

“And, let me guess.” Carmen muttered. “The Kaiho have VILE ties?”

“From what my sources are saying… yeah. And, more than likely, Dr.Glass is being held at this port.”

“Why at a port?”

“Not sure. They could be planning to transport him, or…”

“Or kill him on their own territory.”

Player nodded solemnly. “Which is why we have to act fast.”

Almost as if on queue, the plane shook beneath them and rolled to a rocky stop on the runway. It hissed from depressurization as it landed.

“Did anyone see us?” Carmen asked as she stood. Her limbs still felt like lead. She’d chugged some energy thing from the hotel’s snack bar that Player had recommended, but it had hardly helped (not to mention it had tasted like cough medicine.)

“Not from what I can tell.” Player reassured her. She closed her laptop, and his voice reappeared in her earbuds.

Ivy and Zack were the first out of the plane when its door slid open. Carmen didn’t understand their boundless energy, but they didn’t understand how she could sit on a plane for hours without going stir crazy. She followed them out, and wondered if, perhaps, it was because of their powers. 

Eh, screw that. She didn’t need powers. She was Carmen Sandiego.

The plane’s door closed behind them, and, in the blink of an eye, it disappeared. Carmen would never understand how Player had programmed that cloaking function remotely, but, somehow, he had. 

She knew that the plane was still there, but the subconscious message was very clear: There was no going back now.

There was a certain emotion that came along with missions. Well, it was hardly an emotion. It was as if there were two Carmens: One when she was on a mission, and one when she wasn’t. The thief and the human. The criminal and the 19 year old.

She tried to tell herself that she was on a mission, now, but that Carmen was asleep, and she was a teenager walking into a warzone.

She looked up. The port was towering, as everything was in urban Japan. Cranes reached high into the air like the necks of giant beasts. In their jaws they held lines that held cargo containers on their ends. They sat silent, however. Carmen felt that they had been that way for a long time.

Compared to more central parts of Osaka, though, this place was calm. No neon lights or billboards screaming. No hawkers. Only warehouses and cargo containers. Several of the containers appeared to be converted, with one wall being cut away and replaced by a large blanket. Several of them had text on them, but Carmen was rusty on her Kanji. Based on the ones she could read, she believed them to serve a similar function to street names. 

So this really was a city, huh? Even shrouded in impenetrable darkness, it was still a city.

Towering above all of the converted shipping containers and deserted warehouses, however, was a building that sat in the distance like a monolith. The shipping and receiving bay.

“No use going through the roof.” Player muttered. “There’s no entrance up there.”

“Through the front door it is, then.” Carmen nodded.

* * *

Chase’s breath smelled like Red Bull.

That was all Julia could focus on, even though there were a million other things to be thinking about. She wondered how much of the stuff he had drank, and decided pretty much instantly that the answer was ‘way too much.’

“Do you see that?” He whispered, which only made the scent stronger. The two of them were crouched on the roof of the port’s shipping and receiving bay. Even though the only thing between them and god was the stars, Chase’s stink still seemed to hang in the air.

Of course, she couldn’t see anything. They were crouched on the roof, and the short wall that fenced the edges blocked her vision. After all, Chase was the one wearing the ridiculously bulky X-ray goggles.

“Nope.” She replied. “I can see a concrete wall, and that’s about it.”

“Oh… right. There’s a… strange figure in a coat. Wait… okay, now they’re taking the hood off and, wait, since when has la femme… are those cat ears?”

Julia held herself back from laughing.

“Then that’s probably not her, Sir.”

Chase grumbled, but, surprisingly enough, seemed to agree with her. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

She turned her head to look at him. He was crouched, muscles tightly coiled like a cat. Luckily, Julia’s vision had returned to her enough to see that. At the very least, the world wasn’t melting around her anymore, though a steady throbbing echoed in the back of her mind.

She was nearly shocked out of her trance of serenity when, in the distance, something crashed to the ground. It sounded like a plane landing. She looked to Chase, who seemed to have noticed it as well. 

Though she knew he could see through it using the goggles, seeing Chase look with scrutiny at a wall was still incredibly humorous.

And, maybe five minutes after they had last spoken, Julia’s greatest nightmare appeared.

Or… greatest dream? She wasn’t sure.

Chase got up on his hands and knees, staring over the wall, and shouting:

“La Femme Rouge!”

For whatever reason, in that moment, he seemed to lose all self-control. He jumped.

Julia thought she was seeing things, at first, but she certainly wasn’t. He had leapt off the roof. She scrambled to her feet, watching him fall. The roof was three stories off the ground. There was no way he would sur-

Carmen Sandiego was on the concrete below, and she caught him.

They both looked shocked for a moment: Both the young woman and the middle-aged man. After that moment, though, Carmen dropped him onto the ground below. He landed with a thud.

“You don’t want to be here.” Carmen spoke, quietly. “Seriously, Chase. What the actual fuck are you doing here?”

“Upset you’ve finally been caught?” He smirked. Julia felt like she was gonna barf.

“I’m being serious, Chase!” She snapped. “You’re acting like a child. You need to-”

From the building, an alarm began to blare. It was loud enough that Julia could feel it shake the concrete below her hands. Carmen’s face turned to one of panic. As Chase struggled to his feet, she pushed past him, running to the door of the building. Her two teammates ran behind her.

She yanked fruitlessly at the door handle. Julia felt her heartbeat in her ears. She should be helping, but how was she supposed to get down there? She couldn’t jump. Not that Carmen wouldn’t catch her, but she was distracted, and-

And she threw a bomb.

Carmen threw a bomb, seemingly out of nowhere. Or maybe more like a grenade. Either way, it exploded, and the door became no more than a pile of shrapnel. 

Just like that, Carmen disappeared into the building, and Julia heard a scream.

* * *

Wherever she had disappeared to, Mission Carmen was back. She manifested just about as soon as an inspector had come from the sky, and an ear-splitting alarm had gone off.

So much for stealth, she figured, time for bombs and speed. Grab and dash, as some would say.

Now, she sprinted into the shipping and receiving building, Zack and Ivy on either side of her. VILE knew she was here. All she could do was get to Dr.Glass before they could.

The inside of the building was dark, with visible lights, though none of them were turned on. She gave up a few precious seconds to take her earbuds from her ears and shove them together, allowing them to unfold into Player’s macaw. 

It was a few seconds too many.

From the darkness, she saw a pair of goggles shining, accompanied by a pair of glowing cat ears. And, then, Tigress was upon her.

She didn’t know where Tigress had come from, but, at that moment, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she had her pinned to the floor, claws digging into her shoulders,  _ tearing her coat _ .

Tigress was the least of her issues, right now, however. What she signified was far greater. Not only was VILE here, they had sent their best.

Carmen kicked out, but Tigress dodged out of the way of her legs, and retaliated with a sharp swipe of her claws. 

Carmen felt warm liquid run down her sides. Adrenaline was injected into her, and she leaped up, throwing Tigress to the ground. But she could hardly stand. Her legs ached, and her head swam. Blood pooled down her side.

Ivy and Zack burst forwards, tackling Tigress and holding her down. Carmen smiled. She loved her team.

That was the last thought she had before she fell.

From the distance, she heard a scream:

“Carmen!”

* * *

“Carmen!” Julia screamed.

She shook as she saw red blood join the red of Carmen Sandiego’s coat. She laid limp on the floor. 

It was all Julia could see. She couldn’t see the shrapnel littering the ground around her. She couldn’t see Chase at her side, or Carmen’s redhead team members holding a catwoman to the ground.

She could only see Carmen Sandiego, super thief turned bloody mess.

She was afraid, and enraged, and she bit her lip so hard that it bled. How could Chase do this? How could Carmen get hurt like that? How, how, why?!

Her vision grew white at the edges, and her breath grew short. She did not notice the cracks running up the walls, or the white glow of her hands, or the terror on Chase Devineaux’s face.

Only Carmen.

From above them, the roof caved in.

* * *

Carmen awoke to pain.

She did not remember falling asleep. She did not think she had fell asleep, so much as she had been knocked into it. Pain radiated off of her side.

Oh, yeah. She was hemorrhaging blood. She should probably do something about that.

She struggled to her hands and knees, pushing something off of her back. Everything hurt so, so bad.

She felt the cold night air on her skin, and, above, she could see the stars.

The building was gone. All that remained in its place was rubble.

And what better place to find a goat than in the mountains. Specifically, the mountains of debris.

She locked eyes with Le Chevre.

He smiled.

“Nice to see you awake, Black Sheep.” He said, as if she hadn’t just woken up from a building falling on her. “We have a little deal to propose to you, if you wouldn’t mind.”

From the darkness, Tigress appeared. How the hell did she keep doing that? Maybe Carmen needed glasses or something…

Again, though, Tigress was not what she was concerned about. It was Tigress’s captive.

Dr.Glass appeared… weak, to say the least. He couldn’t have been that old, maybe 35, at the very most. His skin was ghostly pale, and his light blond hair appeared bright in contrast. He still wore a lab coat, but it was tattered, and torn away around his wrists, which were handcuffed behind his back. He looked to Carmen pleadingly.

“What’s your deal?” Carmen practically growled as she crawled to her feet.

Tigress smiled. She was  _ enjoying _ this. She placed a razor-sharp claw to Dr.Glass’s throat.

“You and your team are to leave this instant.” Le Chevre spoke firmly.

“And if we don’t?”

“Then.” Tigress purred. “Bye, bye, Glassy.”

No. Carmen couldn’t fail again. She couldn’t lose again, not to VILE. She couldn’t let another innocent suffer, all because of her.

“No.” She replied, voice wispy. “I have something you want more than that.”

Tigress smiled, and waited.

“Me for him. I’ll come back to the island, and you let him go.”

* * *

“ _ Me for him. _ ” Those words didn’t stop echoing in Julia’s mind. They wouldn’t. 

She had done nothing. She had watched. She had stared on foolishly. 

She had killed Carmen Sandiego, and she could no longer stand to be in her presence. Cold night air filled her lungs as she fled.

Julia Argent was no longer an agent. She was a monster.


	6. Bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Player may be a kid, but sometimes, he has to make the hard choices.

“Too long. Too long, Chief.” Chase Devineaux paced back and forth, his boots clacking against the concrete floor. “Carmen Sandiego has been running free for far, far too long.” He stopped, spinning towards the hologram projected in front of him. “And, now, she’s taken Agent Argent.”

“I… I don’t understand.” Chief spoke, though her facial expression gave away her annoyance with Chase’s theatrical antics. “Julia isn’t helpless. She wouldn’t just go with a superthief.”

“It wasn’t willing.” Chase shook his head. “At least… I doubt it. The building fell, and I couldn’t see anything. But when I woke up, she was gone, and so was La Femme Rouge.”

“Agent Devineaux, you woke up in the hospital.”

“Well, they weren’t there. And… Julia was gone.”

“Did you see anything else?”

“I saw the building fall.”

Chief sighed, and shook her head. “Well, don’t worry. We’ll find Julia. Whatever it takes. I have agents at the site right now, seeing if they can find any clues in the rubble.”

“Thank you.” Chase nearly whispered.

“For now, though. You should be getting some rest. You hit your head pretty damn hard.”

Chief gestured to the bed next to her. Chase had nearly forgotten that he was in a hospital, even though the air reeked of antiseptic, and his head was killing him. 

“I’ll be able to get out of here soon, right? I mean, I’m not really hurt.”

“We’ll see what the doctors say.” Chief said, her tone suddenly turning annoyed. “Until then, you’re on bedrest. Try not to let the hospital fall on you.”

Chase rolled his eyes as the pen clicked off and fell to the floor hollowly. 

But, there was at least one benefit to being stuck in here. He had time to plan. 

He would get Julia back, no matter what. A building falling on him wouldn’t stop him. Carmen Sandiego had evaded him for too long, and he wasn’t about to let it happen again.

* * *

“What would Carmen do?”

“I don’t know, bro. Tell us to rest, probably.”

“While she took care a’ stuff.”

“And now she’s...gone.”

The twins’ voices were mumbled, but Player could still hear them clearly. Though Carmen was gone, she had left her laptop on the plane. So, at the very least, he could still communicate with her team.

Currently, that team consisted of two redheaded twins, stretched out on a hotel bed and a nearby couch, both of whom were wrapped in varying assortments of bandages. Though their powers made them stronger than most, they were still human, and when a building falls on a human, it isn’t all too kind. Luckily, neither of them had needed to stay in the hospital for more than a day. 

But, as far as anyone was concerned, they were currently out of commision. Both of them were concussed, and Zack had broken an arm. They could function, sure, but there were absolutely not in any condition to fight, or even to run. Or walk at a slightly fast speed.

“I think Carmen would tell you two to rest.” Player added in. “She’ll find her way out. Don’t worry.”

“Yeah.” Ivy said somberly, flopping over on the bed. 

“You know what sounds really good right now?” Zack asked as he stared at the ceiling. “Some burgers.”

“Oh, god, you’re right bro. Player, you’re like, a wizard, right? Can you get us some burgers?”

Player sighed.

“Yeah. Sure.”

* * *

Player’s fingers flew over his keyboard, but his thoughts flew even faster. He hardly registered what he was doing on the computer. He had more important thoughts.

Like the file he had pulled up on his right-most monitor.

It was a simple text file, but he had spent so many hours staring at it. The decrypted version of the VILE harddrive. The most important gadget that Carmen had.

For ease of use, he had broken up the file, organizing it into individual missions. It was the document that sent Carmen on her capers. The document behind everything.

And, now it told him that VILE was planning to rob an explosives factory in Missouri.

Carmen had no official motto, but she did have a code she lived by. She would never let VILE get away with anything. No matter how small it seemed, it was her sacred duty to stop it. 

He knew that she would want him to continue this in her absence.

His eyes remained on the file. The heist was to happen tomorrow. There was no way that the twins would be better by then, and he couldn’t bank on Carmen returning. Despite he reassuring words to the twins, he knew what VILE was capable of. Though no prison could hold Carmen, VILE was much more than a prison.

He was left with nothing. No Carmen, no twins. Just a tiny shred of knowledge that haunted him. Sure, he could leave it alone. No one would trace a robbery in Missouri to a teenager in Canada. But, Carmen had her code.

And he was with her till the end.

He opened the phone application he used on his computer, as soon as he was finished ordering hamburgers from the nearest burger joint. 

He knew the numbers of everyone in the world, but, today, there was only one that he needed to call. The only person he could trust. 

* * *

Julia’s phone rang. She put it to her ear.

“Ms. Argent?” A young voice inquired. “I...need your help.”


	7. The Haunted Factory Caper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "For Carmen."

“Player, are you sure about this?”

Julia breathed, smelling her own breath returned to her. It smelled like smoke.

“It’s the safest way in. This place is closed, and the doors are equipped with high-tech protection and detection systems. You’d be caught for sure.”

“Okay.” Julia sighed, and took a deep breath to steady herself. “It’s dark.”

She tried to see, but the world around her was pitch black, except for some subtle spots of brown. That made sense, she supposed. She  _ was _ underground.

The tunnel looked too small to fit any human, when she had first saw it. But Player had insisted, vaguely muttering something about how “it was made by a human.” Under normal circumstances, she would’ve refused outright. But, now, there were other factors in play.

There was Carmen.

Not to mention, she was clad in equipment that she didn’t understand, but would supposedly allow this mission to go “smoothly.”

A mask was fitted snugly over the lower half of her face. It reminded her of an oxygen mask, though it was made of much firmer plastic. Supposedly, it would filter out any earth particles, and would help her breathe underground. Player had been very insistent about the filtering out part, as if he was more concerned about her being killed by some dirt than in a fight.

Just above the mask, her eyes were shielded by a pair of goggles. They had tiny lights embedded into them, allowing her to see, but Player had warned her about using them due to their low battery life. She had been advised to turn them on when she got into the building, and no sooner.

She really, really wanted to turn them on.

Though she couldn’t see, she could breathe, and she supposed that that was more important. She took one more deep breath, and continued crawling forward on her hands and knees. Her spine brushed the top of the tunnel. She wondered how Carmen would’ve pulled this off, as she was far taller and more broad-shouldered than Julia. 

Probably, she would’ve done something super cool. Like hang gliding onto the building. Or teleporting in. Or even just running in, guns blazing.

But Julia was not Carmen, and Carmen was not here.

Julia was not Carmen. She was no superthief, she was an assistant. A paper-pusher. And now she was god knows how many feet underground. And the dirt above was going to fall on her, and she would suffocate and die, and no one would ever find her body and-

“Ms.Argent?” Player spoke, his voice suddenly high-pitched and concerned. “You’re breathing  _ really _ heavily, Ms.Argent.”

“Je vais mourir je vais mourir je vais mourir.” She panted.

“No, no, you’re not gonna die, it’s okay.” Julia suddenly remembered that her current correspondent was Canadian, and could understand her French. “You’re okay.”

“How does Carmen do this?”

“I- I don’t know. But she’s okay. Carmen’s still around, yeah? I know you aren’t Carmen. But, right now, she needs you. It’s okay.”

“Okay okay okay okay…”

“It’s gonna be ok. Just breathe. You’re okay.”

“Okay…”

“Deep breaths.”

Julia nodded, and took a deep breath of stale air. She felt some of her shaking calm down.

“It’s okay. You okay?”

“I’m okay. How much farther is it?” She whispered, as if something below the Earth could possibly hear her. By all logic, she could’ve screamed, and still would not have been heard.

“About five-hundred feet. Just keep going.”

“Okay.”

“The tunnel ends inside the building, so there will be a slight incline in just a bit.” The boy’s voice was taut, and seemed strained. Julia wondered if he had had dinner. She did not know where he resided, but he had been speaking with her for hours, now. “Once inside, there will be a stairwell, leading to a catwalk over the main factory floor.”

“Player...what are we even stealing from this place? It’s a dynamite factory.”

“Not stealing anything. We’re stopping the theives.”

“Shouldn’t you be calling the police, then?”

“You are the police.”

“Uh...not anymore.”

“Oh. Well, this...it’s not a case the police could solve. There’s more to it.”

“Is VILE involved?”

Player seemed somewhat taken aback by that question. Julia had been wondering it since the beginning. A mysterious theif must be connected to other mysterious theives, right?   
“Yes. You will be fighting a VILE agent.”

“Like… the ones that took Carmen?”

“Mhm. You just have to chase them out. Usually, Carmen takes the goods before the real theives can. But its a bit difficult to take the whole inventory of a factory...so just chase them out. I’ll get increased security measures instituted at the factory.”

“What? How?”

“I...have ways.”

Julia was about to question further, but was distracted as she felt the ground beneath her hands and knees begin to curve upwards. She dug her fingers into the dirt and pushed herself upwards as the incline steepened.

“You’re right about under the stairwell. Be as quiet as you can.”

She nodded. The incline got to the point where she had to shove her feet into the ground, feeling dirt fall away behind her. A dim light above kept her moving forwards, and, soon, she found herself back above ground.

In here, the air stunk of sulfur, but at least it was fresher. Her eyes adjusted slowly, but did not have much to adjust to. The stairwell spiraled upwards, and was as industrial as they came. The tiles and even the railings on the stairs seemed grey and colorless.

Julia scrabbled her way from the tunnel, and got to her feet, relieved to be standing again. She walked towards the stairs on quiet feet.

“From what I can see on the cameras, there’s only one VILE agent here. How do you feel about heights?”

“Uh...what do you mean?”

She whispered as she continued moving forwards. She began climbing up the stairs, practically tip-toeing.

“So, there’s a catwalk. It overlooks the factory floor, where the VILE agent currently is. If you could surprise him…”

“You want me to  _ jump _ ?”

“Pretty much...yeah. If you land on him, you’ll be fine.”

“And if I don’t land on him?”

“I trust that you will.”

“...okay. Okay. I can do that. Then, get off the stairwell on floor four. And be  _ quiet _ .”

Julia nodded, and passed the industrial-looking door marked with a large 3. She hardly dared to breath as she ascended the rest of the stairs, and stopped in front of the door to the fourth floor.

“For Carmen.” She whispered.

Silently, and with no input from her, the door opened. Remote-activated, she supposed. As quietly as she could, she crept forwards.

The catwalk was at least thirty feet off of the factory floor. Below, a labyrinth of stalled machines sat like a sleeping snake. The only thing between her and the drop was a short chain-link barrier.

Something moved below.

She stopped, and stood as a statue would as she stared. Below, a man moved. Though she could hardly see him, she noted his broad shoulders and squared jaw. Was this really the man she wanted to mess with?

Yes, it was. If it meant helping Carmen.

“El Topo is distracted. Jump when ready.”

Julia nodded, and swallowed. A fall from this height would surely mean at least a few broken bones.

But Carmen wouldn’t be scared. And, now that Carmen was gone, Julia would do everything she could. After all, broken bones still healed.

Another deep breath. 

Julia leapt onto the railing, and then off of it.

She expected to be afraid, but she was not. Wind rushed by her, and she felt stronger than she ever had before. Was this why Carmen did what she did? To get this rush? The feeling of flying?

She crashed down onto El Topo hands first, knocking him to the ground with a crash. A shock shot up her arms, but it was numbed by adrenaline. His eyes widened in terror, and she grinned.

“Who the hell are you?” He yelled, with his words underlaid by a heavy Spanish accent. 

Julia panicked. What was she supposed to say? She couldn’t arrest him, not with no backup. Chief didn’t even know she was here.

And, when Julia panicked, she did stupid things.

“Don’t you know this place is haunted?” She growled, drool dripping from her lips. The headlights on her glasses turned on.  _ Thanks, Player _ . “There’s a reason it closes in the evening. Cause they don’t wanna see  _ me _ .”

Her hands began to glow, as did her eyes. With a grand crash, behind her, the factory equipment began to roar. It was deafening. Julia did not control it, but it was her doing. She controlled the spinning of each gear and sawblade. 

El Topo tensed. It seemed like he had been afraid in the first place, and this had only solidified that feeling.

He screamed, and fled into the depths of the darkened building. Julia watched him go with a grin. The man reminded her of Devineaux.

“Player.” She panted into the microphone. “He’s gone. And I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon.”

“Heck yeah! Good job. However you...did that? What was that?”

“Not sure.” She couldn’t knock the smile from her face. “Those are the ones that took Carmen?”

“One of them, yeah.”

“Then… if that’s all it takes, let’s get Carmen back.”

“You’re really gonna come to the dark side.”

“I’m going to help Carmen.”

“Okay. Just… don’t tell ACME  _ anything _ , okay?”

“They won’t hear a thing.”

Sometimes, she supposed, it was good to be a monster.


	8. The Pawns Are Set

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pieces are set, and the game's rulebook has long since been lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Non-specific mentions of past traumatic injuries

“Last night, a spectacle right out of a movie unfolded in Carthage, Missouri.” The news anchor spoke in a practiced, unaccented voice. Her hair was done up neatly in a bun, and her makeup was contoured by the best makeup artist to look as bland as possible. “At a Dyno Nobel dynamite and industrial explosives factory, an attempted robbery was stopped by a masked vigilante. Local authorities are currently investigating the identity of both the thief and the vigilante. And now for the real news, last nights football game!”

Ivy picked up the remote as fast as possible and turned the news off. The TV clicked off with a short, sharp beep.

“Sounds a lot like VILE.” She commented as she set the remote back down on the end table next to the beige couch.

“What does?” Zack asked from the other side of the couch. The piece of furniture was pale and reeked of dust.

“This whole situation. A masked vigilante and a robbery of something seemingly random? It’s got VILE all over it.”

“But Carmen…”

“It’s not Carmen.” Player’s voice crackled from the laptop speakers. The hotel’s connection was absolute garbage, and it made him sound like a robot. “I analyzed the footage. Not a red coat in sight.” 

He wished it was Carmen. But it wasn’t. The world was on its head, and he was doing everything he could from his bedroom. But he hadn’t thought of the most obvious thing: Turning off the cameras.

He had been too worried about Agent Argent.

“Then, if it wasn’t Carmen…” Zack began.

“Who was it?” The twins asked in unison.

“I don’t know. Maybe some other vigilante.”

“Who just so happened to know where VILE was? There’s not another Carmen, is th-” Zack stopped himself before he finished his sentence.

“There’s no other Carmen. Nothing and no one could ever replace her.” Ivy shook her head.

“We need to find her. We can’t depend on some vigilante.” Zack replied with conviction.

“We can search for Carmen when you two are back on your feet. Don’t worry about VILE.”

“What makes you so sure?” Ivy turned to the laptop, her tone snappy and worried. Player flinched.

“I just know.” He replied with a similar sharp tone, which sounded far more aggressive than he had intended it. 

“You know where Carmen is, don’t you?” He had never heard her voice so taut.

“Guys, guys, don’t argue-” Zack tried.

“I don’t!” Player practically shouted, which crackled through the speakers. “I’m sorry. I… I don’t know. I wish I did. But I don’t. And I miss her so much and… I have a source. Someone who’s...filling in for her. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Why can’t you tell us?” Ivy slunk back. “What, are you working with VILE or something?”

“No. But… It’s close.”

* * *

“A new Carmen Sandiego.” Agent Zari’s voice was quiet and wistful, like mist.

“As if we didn’t already have enough to deal with.” Chief spoke, her tone spiked with slight laughter. Agent Zari didn’t laugh. Chief shook her head. 

“Do you believe she’s working with Sandiego?”

“I don’t know. We have no way of knowing just how deep Sandiego’s criminal web runs.”

“Do we know anything about her? I sent this footage to the research department, but they haven’t been able to gather anything yet. The footage is quite blurry.”

Chief took a step forwards, towards the screen that was broadcasted on a wall in the room. Even though she was quite used to the moon’s lowered gravity, it still felt odd to walk. The artificial gravity in ACME’s HQ was remarkable, but not flawless.

The video screen warped as she dipped her fingers into the hologram. With a flick of her wrist, the video zoomed in.

Currently, it was focused on the moment when this strange masked hero had leapt from the factory’s catwalk. It was the clearest look that they had gotten of the hero, as it was the only time that she had looked at the camera. 

“Ma’am? What are you saying?” Agent Zari stepped forwards to be next to Chief. Her robotic legs strained under the odd gravitational environment. For the thousandth time, she cursed the day she had been trapped in those tunnels. She had been brought back from the dead, but at what cost?

“Agent Zari, did you ever meet Agent Argent?”

“I don’t believe so, no.”

“She was one of our French agents. She worked closely on the Sandiego case. She was there, on the day of the cave-in, though I don’t believe you saw her.”

“I don’t remember that day.”

“Oh. Yes, my apologies. Well, what I’m saying, Agent Zari,” Chief turned to Zari. “Is that this masked hero may be an ACME agent gone AWOL.”

* * *

Carmen kept her head down.

Her hands were firmly chained together in front of her, and she made no effort to escape from her bindings. There was no true reason to. She would end up injuring herself more.

That was all she ever did. Get other people hurt. And, now, she, herself, was the one in danger. As was her whole team. And she couldn’t do a single thing about it.

Her cell was about as traditionally VILE as a room could be. No windows, just a single steel door that she could only assume was double or triple reinforced. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of a dark sort of rubber, arranged in formations of hexagons. She knew the material well. It had been developed by Dr.Bellum, long before Carmen came to the island. Long before she was born, probably.

Fiseka Gej, it was known as. Kurdish was not one of the languages that Carmen spoke, but it was Bellum’s native tongue. It translated to something close to “shield rubber,” Carmen believed. 

A power blocker. While in this room, any amélioré would find their powers useless. 

Carmen had no powers, but the presence of the material made her worry for her future.

A knock sounded on the steel door, and her worries suddenly became much more present in her mind. She tensed her shoulders, but made no attempt to get up.

She was defeated. The great Carmen Sandiego was a caged animal.

The room was pitch black, and her retinas burned as the door opened, letting in the only light she had seen in god knows how long. Her eyes adjusted in a few moments, and she was able to make out the silhouette of this unwelcome visitor.

Shadowsan.

“What? If you want to gloat, can’t you do it at the Faculty Table?” Carmen griped. It would get her nowhere, but it felt good.

Shadowsan kept his hand on his sword’s sheath as he approached. He closed the door behind him.

“The faculty does not know that I am here, Black Sheep.”

“Then what? Here to gloat in private?”

“No.” He shook his head. His expression was unreadable, as always. “I’m here to warn you.”

“What? Has my execution date been set or something?”

“Not quite. But Dr.Bellum is… reviving an old experiment.”

Carmen’s eyes widened, though it did not help her see in the darkness. 

“She wants to finish what she started.” Carmen spoke.

Shadowsan nodded. 


	9. The Year of the Fox Caper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julia Argent has been many things throughout her life. An agent of Interpol, an agent of ACME, a fugitive, and, now, an agent of VILE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Mentions of alcohol and blood

“A week.” Chase Devineaux began. Chief stared at him with no amusement in her holographically-projected eyes. “A week, I’ve been stuck here. Dans cet endroit d’enfer!”

“Calm down, Agent Devineaux.” She shook her head. “Someone will hear.”

“Whatever.” Devineaux sat back down on his hospital bed. It had been his home for far longer than he wished it had been. His eyes burned from the blank, white walls of his hospital room. One of these days, he was just going to punch a doctor and run. “Yesterday, I was given the all clear.”

“They told you that your arm was healed. That dosen’t mean an all clear.”

“It should mean that I can leave this place!”

“If you would just listen to me, Devineaux. There is a reason that I called you.”

“Of course, Chief.” He shook his head, seemingly returning at last to his senses. Or, at least, he had remembered that Chief was his boss, and not his friend. He stood back up.

“I have read your medical reports. Your arm has healed, and your other injuries should not hinder you. You are cleared to return to the field.”

Chase’s eyes widened, but he attempted to keep his excitement to a professional level, lest Chief revoke her decision.

“Finally.” He nodded. “When can I leave this place?”

“A driver will pick you up in two hours. Your flight leaves in four. I hope you are up to sitting still for some time longer, as your flight is to Australia.”

* * *

“Australia?” Zack spoke with a questioning tone.

“Or, as its sometimes called, the land down under. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent. Despite this, over twenty-five million people live there.” Player explained.

“And they say, uh, shrimp on da barbie!” Zack joked.

“That’s British people, dipshit.” Ivy elbowed him. “So what’s our mission?”

“Well…” Player began, before shaking his head. “Though a large amount of Australia’s current population is of European descent, a significant portion of their population is made up of Indigenous Australian people, or, as they are more commonly referred to, Aboriginals. Aboriginal peoples have a very deep tradition with art, and nowadays, Aboriginal artists have begun using traditional techniques in their art. This type of art has become incredibly popular in Australia, in recent years.”

Zack and Ivy looked half-way asleep.

“And VILE is trying to steal a very famous Aboriginal painting.”

That caught their attention.

“An Aboriginal artist’s association is hosting a charity auction. And VILE has plans to steal the auctioned paintings.”

Ivy and Zack sat up on the couch they were slumped on.

“Got it.” Ivy nodded.

“When do we leave?” Zack asked.

“Um…” Player averted his eyes. “You aren’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wanted to let you two know but… I have it taken care of. A building fell on you two.”

“That was a week ago. We’re fine.”

“It’s taken care of.”

“Yeah, by Carmen.”

“Not by Carmen! It’s just, taken care of. It’s fine.”

* * *

“I wish Carmen was here.”

“I know. Me too.”

“She would know how to do this.”

“Eh, despite all that she can do, I don’t think disguises were one of her strong suits. There’s a reason that she’s known as the crimson theif.”

Julia laughed lightly, and nodded.

“So, this wire goes here…”

“Blue wire into the green port.”

“Okay, got it. And then, green wire in the blue port?”

“Got it in one.”   
Julia nodded, and did as instructed. In front of her, on a small coffee table, laid what appeared to be a headband with large, fox-like ears sticking out of it. It was rather bulky, and was made of a shining white metal.

“Alright, now do I put it on?”

“Yep. Just, uh, make sure the earbuds are in your, uh…”

“Ears.” Julia filled in for him. She could hear his exhaustion clearly in his voice. She wondered how long it had been since he had slept. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” His tone was quite defensive. 

Julia nodded, and slid the headband onto her head. On its ends were attached two earbuds, which fit into her ears surprisingly comfortably.

“There’s a button on the left temple. So, uh, press that.”

Julia nodded, and pressed the button. It pushed in with a soft click, and the gadget began to grumble. Her heartbeat sped up, which only increased when Player spoke:

“Close your eyes.”

She gulped, but complied.

She felt the metal unfold around her head. It formed a sort of helmet around the back of her head, while on the front a sort of goggle-like structure formed. 

“Okay, open them.”

Julia nodded, and did.

Her sphere of vision was dyed a light green, and, instantly, small white squares began to appear around different objects in her hotel room. Coffee table - made of wood, hovering at a solid room temperature, able to be moved. Bed - made of wood with a metal frame, nailed to the floor.

Oh  _ merde _ .

“Player, what is all this?”

“It’s standard VILE ware. They call it VILEtech, because they’re not very creative. I hope you don’t mind that I, uh, kinda made you a VILE identity.”

“What? Why?”

“I probably should’ve told you. There’s a lot of things that I probably should’ve done. I… Ms.Argent, you’re going on an undercover mission. You’re going to be Le Renard Polaire, a special VILE agent from France.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no. This is good. Do they know I’ll be there?”

“I’ve hacked into their mission briefing system. As far as they know, you’re a VILE agent, as real as any other. You’re currently replacing El Topo, got it?”

“Got it. That means I can follow them, back to VILE island.”

“What?”

“That’s where Carmen is, right? If I can pull off a Bavarian Fire Drill, then I can get her back!”

“I… I suppose. Just please be careful.”

“I’ll do what Carmen would.”

* * *

The air smelled of champagne and an array of other alcoholic beverages. It was the scent of decadence, and a scent that carried stupidity in its aftertaste.

Though being drunk right now was probably just about the worst thing, a small part of Julia desired it. It was the French blood in her veins, she supposed.

But Julia was not there. Le Renard Polaire was. And, currently, she was perched upon the roof of the Adelaide Festival Centre. In one ear, her comm link to Player. In the other, her communications with her VILE team.

She was really doing this, huh?

“C’est bon d'enfin pouvoir remettre un autre agent françois, n’est-ce pas?” Le Chevre spoke in her comm link. He and Tigress were the current ground support, with Tigress running point on the operation. Le Renard Polaire was their eyes in the sky. Or, more specifically, in the rafters.

“Ouais, bien sur.” Julia spoke with a nod. 

“English on the comm links, guys.” Tigress sounded irritated. “I don’t speak baguette or surrender.”

Le Chevre grumbled, but complied.

“Renard, the auction is starting. Move in.” Tigress ordered.

“Roger that.” Le Renard Polaire nodded, and slipped in through the open window on the roof. Her tail rippled, adjusting its weight to act as a counterweight to the rest of her body. Player said that it would help her keep her balance effortlessly, and so far, it was working.

Before her stretched a labyrinth of rafters. She was right above where sets would drop for the Centre’s stage shows. The lattice of wood extended across the entire ceiling, for structural reasons.

“What do you see?” Le Chevre asked through the crackling comms link.

Le Renard stayed quiet for a moment as she crawled forwards, on all fours. The clawed gloves she wore dug into the wood, though they left no marks. She peered between the strips of wood, and at the floor below.

If she had to guess, about three hundred people moved around, all wearing sparkling dresses or tuxedos. She wondered how many millions it was worth, in all. Likely several. A gala was not an event attended by the cheap.

A woman on a stage clacked a spoon against a wine glass, and called out:

“Hello, everyone! Thank you for attending tonight. Our art auction is going to be starting now, so I encourage everyone to take a seat.”

Her microphone turned off, and several people around the stage began translating into different languages. Soon, most of the attending party had begun to drift towards the chairs.

“The auction just started. The party is moving towards the seating area. Though it looks like some waiters are still going arou-”

From behind, Le Renard was bowled over. Two strong hands grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her face into the wooden lattice below. On instinct, she twisted around, and kicked off her attacker with her legs, which were currently augmented by a sort of exosuit that allowed her to deliver much more powerful strikes. Her assailant went flying, but landed in a crouch. She got to her feet as she-

Chase.

As she came face to face with Chase Devineaux.

He panted, and a scratch on his neck was beginning to drip blood. Le Renard- Julia’s heartbeat sped up.

She didn’t want to hurt him. He was her friend, despite his often haphazardly placed anger. But revealing her identity would light ablaze the carefully-spun web of lies that she survived on. He thought her to be a VILE agent, and would treat her as such.

“Renard, what’s going on in there?!” Tigress shouted in one ear.

“Julia, are you okay?” Player yelled in the other.

“Our first painting is this beautiful piece by Youkall Kelly.” The auctioneer announced.

Julia met Chase’s eyes, and charged at him.

She wasn’t going to hurt him, only knock him down. Below, the sounds of shouts echoed as bids rained down. Julia tackled Chase to the rafters, and he swung at her. Her dodge gave him just enough time to escape her grasp.

There, on the lattice of wood, they traded blows. Julia’s tail curled, and her mechanical ears flicked in an attempt to process the noise that threatened to overwhelm her.

Chase swung at her face, but left himself open. She gulped, and knocked his legs out from under him.

He went down with a crash, and the cracking of wood.

Below Chase, the rafters came away, and he fell, his expression turning from confidence to fear. Julia didn’t think. She grabbed his hand, but the wood below her feet was already falling away, as well.

She pulled him up, all while scrabbling to keep herself upright. Below, gasps rang out. The auctioneer’s gavel clammered.

“Sold!” The voice came both from below, and from Julia’s earpiece. It was the voice of Le Chevre.

This was her plan. She would direct ACME to VILE without VILE knowing. The paintings would be saved, and she would follow VILE back to their island. Carmen would be saved, and the world would be right once more.

But ACME wasn’t supposed to send Chase. She couldn’t put him in danger. 

“You’ve lost.” She panted as she looked into his eyes. “Run.”


	10. The Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Julia, Carmen, and the twins separated and living in different worlds, they begin to fall apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Depictions of syringes, mentions of injuries. Proceed with caution if you are sensitive to these subjects.

“For the last time, I’m not your lab rat.” Carmen protested, though her tone wasn’t sharp, and her protests did not extend further than her words. Behind her, a VILE guard forced her forwards, which she did not struggle against. She did not have the will left inside her.

“Well, sacrifices must be made for the advancement of science, Black Sheep.” Dr. Bellum walked at her side, gesturing wildly with her hands, as if she were making fun of the fact that Carmen’s hands were currently restrained. “This is what should’ve been done years ago. It’s simply overdue.”

Dr. Bellum opened the door to her lab, and the rancid smell of sterile equipment and bleach flooded out in a gust. The guard guided Carmen inside.

It was just as she remembered it, all those years ago. In the past three years, her only interaction with this place had been looking at the images that Player’s bird had captured, and even those were grainy. 

The walls were lined with animal cages, and the room was a cacophony of rattling and squeaking. Somewhere, a hamster ran on its a wheel. Somewhere else, two ferrets attempted to rip out each others throats.

A chair had been set up, with restraints on the arms and legs. Great. Carmen took a wild guess who that was for.

Her implication was soon solidified as the guard forced her to sit in the chair, and attached the restraints to her wrist and ankles. It was useless. She wouldn’t have run anyways.

Dr.Bellum waved the guard off, and he quickly left. Carmen was alone with this mad woman.

Whatever. As if things could get better.

She knew that she shouldn’t be giving up. Inside her, Carmen Sandiego cried out for her to flee. She could get out of some restraints. She was fast enough to escape this place.

But Black Sheep was at the wheel now, and she knew better. She was the good kid.

“So, what unethical science experiment will we be doing today?” She decided that, at the very least, she could keep her snark about her.

“Not unethical. If anything, you should be thanking me, Black Sheep.”

“You’re giving me superpowers, which I don’t want.”

“Do you know what some would give for this opportunity? This kind of power acquisition has not been attempted since Wondrium was in circulation. It’ll be a scientific achievement, and you will become… improved.” 

“I’m already improved enough to kick your ass.”

Dr.Bellum shot a sharp glare at her, before approaching her. In one hand, she held a syringe that seemed to be filled to the brim. Or, in this case, the plunger.

“Isn’t this the banned chemical that killed people?”   
“It killed the weak, who did not deserve to live in the first place. But you are not weak. You will live.”

Carmen flinched as Dr.Bellum approached her. She was not afraid of many things, but needles were more than unpleasant. She bit back a yelp as the needle was inserted, but it was over in a mere moment.

As was, probably, her life.

“Are you aware that you’re giving your prisoner superpowers?”

“Oh, you don’t have to be a prisoner for forever, Black Sheep.”

* * *

“If you’re going to keep telling us about these missions, why won’t you let us help?” Ivy snapped. 

Player rubbed his eyes with his hand. He couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten a good night of sleep. He took a sip of the energy drink that sat next to his keyboard.

“You’re still hurt. It’d be the same if Carmen was here.”

“We’re fine!” Ivy took the lead in tonight’s argument. “We’re fine. It’s been weeks. We can’t just stay cooped up in here, while VILE is doing god knows what to Carmen.”

“I’m sorry.” Was all he could say. “Someone else is handling it. Everything is fine.”

“Someone else.” Ivy chuckled with maliciousness. “You can’t replace Carmen.”

“There’s no one else like her.” Zack added. “A trained criminal doing good.”

“I kno-” Player started, but he was cut off by Ivy.

“Unless your ‘source’ is another criminal.” 

A moment of nothing.

“Player, you’re working with VILE, aren’t you?”

“No! I wouldn’t do that.”   
“Then tell us who you’re working with. I’m not asking.”

“I can’t I need to protect her, Ivy.”

“Oh, it’s a girl, huh?”

“And it’s not Carmen. I’m really sorry, Ivy. We’ll get Carmen back. You just need to be patient.”

“How can we be patient while Carmen is… who knows where!” Zack complained.

“I have everything under control.” Player sighed, before chugging the rest of his energy drink.

* * *

“Day one.” Carmen muttered as she rested the back of her head against her cell’s wall. The material was oddly springy, as if it was designed to be hit. “I don’t know why I’m doing this, this is stupid.”

She laughed lowly and hugged her knees to her chest. As she did so, a sharp stab of pain shot through her left arm, with the epicenter being where the injection had been administered.

“I’ve always heard that it’s good to keep your sense of time if you’re in captivity. I never thought this would happen but, here goes nothing.”

She began to massage the bruise on her arm, but it did next to nothing.

“Day one. Day one since the Wondrium was given to me. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. I feel fine, I guess. My arm really hurts, but I guess that’s to be expected.

I wonder what I’m going to become.”

  
  


“VILE is planning a heist on the Hungarian Nation Museum tomorrow.”

“Player are you okay?” Julia questioned as she moved the laptop onto her lap. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I have energy drinks.” He shook his head.

“You can’t sustain yourself on just that. Trust me, that’s what Chase used to do. It didn’t work all too well. Besides, you’re just a kid.”

“A teenager. I’ll… I’ll catch up on sleep when all this is over.”

“Will you?”

“I will. I promise.”   
“In that case.” She shook her head. “When’s my flight to Hungary?”

“At seven.”

“It’s 5 in the morning. Is there an earlier one?”

“Oh, sorry. Seven my time. Nine AM for you. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Can you get some sleep while I’m on the flight? I won’t be able to call you.”

Player shook his head. “I’m still researching.”

“Researching what, exactly?”

“VILE’s files say that they’re looking to steal some of the Roman Dodecahedrons. What I want to know is why.”

“The Roman Dodecahedrons?”

“Yeah, they’re-”

“Oh, I know what they are. Those weird metal things they found spread all over the Roman Empire, right?”

“Pretty much, yeah. But no one is sure what they were used for. They don’t look like they’d be especially useful in battle, and they aren’t cutlery.”

“Well, why do you think VILE would want them?”

“To sell to a private collector, probably. That’s what they do with most historical artifacts. And most stuff that they steal.”

“That’s what they do with it?”

“Most of it, yeah.”

“Then, why steal a mining drill? Or kidnap a scientist?”

“I don’t know. But you have a flight to catch.”

“Get some sleep, okay? I already know about the Dodecahedrons.”

“I’ll try. Thank you, Julia.”

“Of course, kid.”

* * *

“Guys? Hello?”

Player looked through his webcam, and checked to make sure that his microphone was working. It was. His speakers were fully operational, as well.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”   
He looked at the window on his computer. His camera seemed to be working just fine. He could clearly see the twins, sitting on the couch, staring rather blankly at the hotel television.

They did not answer. They were ignoring him. 

Fine. Whatever.

Player ended the call, and drank another energy drink.

  
  


“Day four. I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think it’s exactly good that my arm has started swelling. I don’t know if that’s the right word. I can’t see in here, they keep the lights off, but my arm feels...off. It hurts to touch.

I thought this thing was supposed to be a miracle drug.”

  
  


“A bronze age sword? What would they ever want with that?” Julia questioned.

“I don’t know. Probably another collector. It’s in Turkey.”

“Did you sleep like I told you to?”

“No. I’m fine, though.”

“Where are your parents?”

Player didn’t reply to that, and after a few moments of silence, Julia dropped the subject.

“The sword is in Anıtkabir, a museum in Turkey. Your flight leaves in three hours.”

“You really need to sleep.”

“I need to brush up on my Turkish.”

“If it’s a tourist spot, they’ll speak English. Please, kid?”

“Fine. I’ll try.”

* * *

The laptop clicked as Player opened a comms line into the twins’ hotel room. He expected them to be sitting around, again, or watching TV, but instead he saw a room that appeared to have had a tornado blow through it.

Papers littered the floor, as did bags of takeout. The twins were crouched over a world map, which was wrinkled at the edges.

“If it’s an undiscovered island, it has to be out in the middle of nowhere, right?” Zack reasoned.

“I guess so. Did she ever mention that the island experienced winter?” Ivy contributed.

“I don’t think so.”

“It’s probably below the equator, then.”

“Do you think we should ask Player? He’s known her for far longer than we have.”

“I’m not talking to a traitor.” Ivy shook her head.

Player ended the call.

* * *

“Day eight. I don’t know why, but this floor is just, so comfortable.” Carmen spoke, the last wisps of a yawn still floating on her voice. “I think I’m gonna take a nap. I don’t want to get back up.

I can’t feel my arm. Or my face. Which isn’t good. Maybe i just need some rest. It’s not like I can get up anyways.”

* * *

“VILE is seeking several packages of C4, currently held in a military base in Poland.”

“Oh, Poland, I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Yeah, it’s...a place.”

“Their tallest mountain is Mt.Rysy, right?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know a lot about geography.”

* * *

“Ivy?”

“Yeah?”

“What if… what if Carmen is gone?”

“She’s been gone for a month, dipshit.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean…”

“Dead?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s not dead. She’s Carmen Sandiego. She can’t die.”

* * *

“Day ten. Something… feels different.

I can’t breathe.”

* * *

“You’re going to Paris to retreive La Science.”

“Oh, really? It’s been so long since I’ve been in France. Do you wanna know some facts about France? I really like trivia when I was a kid.”

“No thank you. Your flight leaves in an hour.”

* * *

“VILE’s agents are good.” Chief stated as she stood next to Chase Devineaux. The two of them stood in one of ACME’s many locations, this one in London. The walls reflected the limited light in the room in soft, grey dapples. The miniscule amount of illumination came from the blue screen, which was projected against one wall.

“That’s how they eluded you for twenty years?”

“You have to understand, they’re highly trained super-thieves. It’s hard for us to keep up. But this one…”

Chief gestured to the screen, and the footage rolled back a few seconds. Currently, the screen was showing footage of Chase’s recent encounter with Le Renard Polaire. 

“Most VILE agents would have used their electricity weapons on you. They’ve done it before. But this agent does not seem to have any weapons, and her disguise dosen’t match the other VILE agents.”

“What are you saying?”

“Well, if you would let me finish, she always arrives a few hours before VILE, in a passenger jet. Which is very atypical.”

“Do you think she’s VILE?”

“No. She could be an amateur, but VILE wouldn’t let her out on the field if that was the case. I think she’s from another agency.”

“An ally of VILE, maybe?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. VILE agents are escape artists, but she’s clearly not an expert in anything. If we can capture her, we can finally get our information about VILE.”

“Almost like with Carmen Sandiego.”

“Almost, yes. We have tracked her jet, and believe that she will be landing in Paris in about three hours. How’s your French?”

“My French is fine. C’est ma langue maternelle.”

“I have no idea what you just said, but okay. This is a very dangerous mission. She’s striking in the middle of a populated city. We can’t risk sending a whole team.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re going alone. Capture Le Renard, at all costs.”

* * *

La Science was one of the many statues that settled on top of the Louvre, specifically on the left wing’s roof. It showed a crouching Greek philosopher, holding a torch. It was not one of the Louvre’s famous exhibits, but it was a piece of history, and piece of Paris.

Then, why would anyone want to steal it?

Player had explained the situation to Le Renard Polaire when she had landed at the Lyon Airport. VILE’s mission, her mission, was to clear the Louvre of visitors and to restrain any security. While they did so, Le Renard Polaire would make her way to the roof, and would use her telekinesis to move the statue to a VILE ship waiting in the Seine. He had already alerted ACME of this. They would be there. He was sure of it.

She had never lifted something so heavy before, but they didn’t have to know that. She crouched behind an air conditioning unit on the roof of the Louvre, and waited. Her claws flexed in and out of the roof below, digging miniscule holes in the concrete, as her tail flicked back and forth. Her canine ears swiveled to take in any possible noise. Though, hearing anything was quite difficult at the moment, as earbuds were nestled in her human ears. One linked her to the VILE team, the other linked her to Player.

“Le Renard Polaire, check in?” Tigress’s voice crackled.

“I’m in position.”

“Move in on my signal.”

“Got it.”

There was a noise of acknowledgement over the comms, followed immediately by several rounds of screaming. Based on the subtle tremors of the roof, she knew that Tigress and Le Chevre had just broken the front doors into a million glass smithereens.

Le Renard stiffened, and waited. The screams echoed hauntingly in her ears. She was glad that her hearing was muffled.

After a few minutes, the signal was given: 

“Renard, now!”

Le Renard nodded and scurried out onto the roof. She skidded to a stop below the statue.

She had only used her powers occasionally, but she could do this. Carmen was counting on her.

The statue was twice her size, and made of solid rock, but that didn’t matter. It wasn’t one big rock, it was millions and millions of tiny rocks, each of which consisted of millions and trillions of atoms. She could pick up an atom. She could pick up several atoms. She didn’t have to pick up a giant statue, just a giant statue’s worth of atoms.

She took a deep breath, and felt a glow surround her hands. The statue creaked, but did not budge.

She was doing this for Carmen. This was for Carmen.

After another deep breath, she began again. She lifted from the bottom of the statue, focusing only on those atoms. Slowly, yet surely, before her very eyes, the statue began to rise.

Her head felt ready to explode, but the statue was moving! Inches at a time, but it was moving. She followed it with her eyes as it rose to be a few feet above her-

An arm wrapped around her neck, and, suddenly, Julia couldn’t breathe.

“Le Renard Polaire, you are under arrest.”

She would know that voice anywhere. That was the last coherent thought that she had, before her mind went into utter panic mode. She was no longer levitating several atoms. She was levitating a massive statue, and she couldn’t hold it.

La Science fell.

The arm was removed from her throat, and her assailant fled.

Julia’s vision went black as pain shot through her.


	11. Armageddon Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Under the noses of the world’s population, a grand fighting force assembles from across the globe, and from above it. The pieces were set. But who is on which side?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: None

Julia was dead.

That was her first thought, at least. She wasn’t sure what she thought death would be like. She had never been overtly religious, but she always supposed that she would wake up in some dark place, if she woke up at all. 

The place she was currently in certainly seemed to match that description quite well. The darkness surrounded her like a thick wool blanket, suffocating and comforting at the same time. 

Maybe, she mused, this was purgatory. She’d heard of such things. A place between life and death, a sort of limbo. Yeah, that must’ve been it. She was in limbo. Any moment now, she would be sent to whatever afterlife was out there. She supposed that she had gone to church when she was younger. Maybe she’d be lucky.

Her world filled with light, and for a moment, she was quite sure that that was what had happened. She was in the paradise that that pastor had always talked about.

But, if that was the case, why was the light coming through in slats? Maybe getting off the ground would help with that query. With all the effort she could muster, she hauled herself off of the cold floor, to her hands and knees. Her lungs hurt when she tried to breathe, and her limbs didn’t want to cooperate.

Which afterlife was she really in?   
She wasn’t sure. Before her, light flowed in, though it was filtered through a small break in the wall, which itself was slatted with bars. A door, she realized as her vision adjusted. The light was coming in through a window in a door.

This wasn’t an afterlife. This was a prison cell.

Though it burned like the hottest fires of hell, she stood up, and attempted to look at her surroundings as best as she could. They were bleak. The walls were of an odd black material, which was patterned with inset hexagons. That was why it appeared so dark. Behind her, a bench extruded from the wall, held up by two sturdy chains. 

She was a prisoner. She collapsed to her hands and knees, unable to hold up her own body weight any longer. Her heart pounded against her chest as she tried to remember what had led her to this. 

She was at the Louvre. No, she was on the Louvre. On the roof. She was supposed to lift a statue to a boat. Why? Who told her to? A hazy memory showed her own face in a mirror. Canine ears stuck from her head, and a complex coagulation of metal and glass surrounded her face.

_ Le Renard Polaire _ . The words felt as if they had been whispered to her by someone else. Yes, that was it. She was Le Renard. The fox. She’d been working for VILE.

Well, not really. She’d been helping a child by pretending to work for VILE. What was the kids name? Player. That was it. The thought sent a pang through her chest. Before, the kid had had someone else. Three people. Then two. Then… none. That was when he contacted Julia. Though she’d never mentioned it, she’d felt a sort of maternal love for the child. He was like her. He wanted to see everything, know everything. Not to mention, he was whip smart.

Now he was alone again. 

Who had he been with at first? Another woman. Not his mother, no. They’d grown up together. A woman in a red coat. Julia’s mind was filled with hazy flashes of memories. A hang glider, zipping through the air. A splotch of red, the only sign of life in a collapsing cave. A woman, among rubble. Giving up her life for that of another.

Carmen Sandiego. The name made her lungs heave in a sobbing breath. 

Carmen Sandiego had been captured by VILE. Julia had been her understudy. She’d played her role best as she could, but she was not the right actor. She was not the one who had been cast for the role. 

Now, even the understudy had fallen. But to who? She supposed that there were plenty of people who would want to throw her in a cage. The BFAA, maybe. They hated vigilantes. The Paris police department, perhaps? Or even Interpol? 

Maybe. But another thought stuck out in her mind. The thought of ACME. Her old employer, were they now her captor? When she had been working with Player, she had alerted ACME to every mission that she went on as VILE. But they had no idea that the tips were coming from her. They’d probably taken her in at the scene of the attack, and had thrown her here. 

No. It wasn’t ACME. Though ACME may have had some unorthodox methods, at the heart of things, they were ethical. They would push someone into a cold river if it meant capturing them, but they would always offer medical attention afterwards. They caused harm, but they fixed it. 

Julia was injured, she knew that much. If she had been captured by ACME, she would find herself in a hospital bed.

She wasn’t at ACME. They wouldn’t throw an injured prisoner in a dark cell. That left one option. She shivered at the thought.

Le Renard Polaire was in the hands of VILE.

She stood. She had to get out of here. The world outside needed her. Player needed her. ACME needed her. The world rested on her shoulders, and she could not live out the rest of her life in some cage.

She was an amélioré. She had lifted a statue and took control of a factory and so many other things. This was just a setback.

In hindsight, she should’ve waited. Her body was in no state to fight, and though her place in the world was a vital one, she would be no use without the ability to walk. But she wasn’t thinking. At least, she had only been thinking about a mystery woman in a red coat.

She walked right up to the door, and told it to open.

It didn’t answer. She tried again, the use of her powers only making her headache worse. But the door would not respond. She imagined it not as a slab of steel, but as several smaller pieces of steel, each of which was made up of atoms, each of which was made up of quarks. She imagined those quarks moving, one by one, until the door swung open.

None moved.

“Your powers aren’t going to work.” She heard a voice say, in a voice lacking emotion and humanity. She looked out through the window to her cell, as best as she could.

She couldn’t see much. Only a red coat, and long brown hair cascading down over it.

Julia felt sick.

* * *

Chase Devineaux was on the moon. 

No, not over the moon. He’d always found that idiom to be stupid. English was such an odd language. How could one go over the moon? The moon may have had a rather weak gravitational pull, but it still had one. Overall, it was just a dumb idiom.

Whatever. His thoughts were running, and he couldn’t seem to catch them all. He’d felt the same way for the past hour or so. 

He wasn’t sure what it would feel like, to be in a spaceship. It must’ve been like a plane, but pointed upwards. Presumably.

It was not. Though, he didn’t really know. He hadn’t been on a spaceship.

A teleporter had brought him up here. One second, he was standing in the deepest sub-basement of some office building in Berlin, sweating bullets, and the next, he was on the moon. It felt like something out of a stupid science fiction novel. But, no. It was real. He was on the moon. He found himself staring out one of the windows, watching Earth. It looked so small. For a moment, all of his problems seemed to melt away. How could one be worried about one woman, when the world he lived on was nothing but a spinning ball of colors? It was all so stupid.

“Agent Devineaux. I know it’s all very impressive, but we have work to be doing.”

He nodded, and turned. It was Chief’s voice. Seeing her in person was… odd. For the most part, she still looked the same, but her face was now flush with color, rather than projected in an artificial blue. In person, she looked older. Her white hair was curled around her scalp, and her face was marked by wrinkles. Still, she hardly seemed to notice her own age. 

She led him over to a giant computer monitor. He realized that he had seen the same monitor dozens of times. It was the same monitor that was projected to him, on Earth, whenever he was shown a video or an image. 

Standing in front of it was the second most surprising thing Chase had seen today-- the first being the surface of the actual goddamn moon.

He’d seen Agent Zari in passing. She’d met him at a few rendezvous points, and he’d heard of her before. However, he knew full well that she had been crushed in an underground tunnel in Sri Lanka. He’d been there. He’d seen his partner nearly meet the same fate. However, he’d never heard news of her death.

As she wasn’t dead.

Agent Zari found herself directly in the uncanny valley. On the outside, she looked human, and maybe from far away she did too. But from close up, he saw how much of a lie that truly was. When she moved, he could hear the whirring of servos and motors, and the clanking of gears, and when she spoke, mechanical parts moved beneath her face. Inside her mouth, there was nothing. He doubted that she could eat, or even that she needed to breathe. She had died, yes, but she had been… reconstructed.

Chase tried not to look at her. She made his stomach turn. Instead, he turned his attention to the monitor, which was currently displaying a map of the world. A small blinking red arrow slowly creeped along the Eastern part of the Sahara, heading ever closer to Saudi Arabia. 

“This is our tracker drone.” Chief explained. “It’s tracking the trail left by VILE’s plane. In a few hours, we’ll have a location of their base.”

“And… what then?”

“We destroy them, of course. Around the world, our sectors are already mobilizing. Think you can take the heat?”

“You want me to fight?”

Chief shook her head, and the screen changed to show a scene that Chase knew all too well. The roof of the Louvre. Where the Crimson Ghost had captured Le Renard Polaire, before Chase had the chance.

It was footage from a security camera nearby, that just so happened to be pointed at the roof. In it, for a split second, the mask of Le Renard fell.

“Julia…” Chase spoke, breathless.

“Is in danger.” Chief finished. “It’s up to you to save her. You up to it?”

Chase nodded wordlessly.

* * *

Player was alone. Physically, and in every other way. The last day, he had spent tirelessly searching. Scouring the internet, following every trail he could sniff out till its conclusion. It was what he did. It was what he always did.

But alone…

In the night, the chatrooms sat silent. He sat in his own little world, surrounded by the lifeless eyes of webcams and the inhuman ears of microphones. Alone. Hollow music played in his earphones.

The trails had all run cold. His eyes burned with exhaustion as the peppy music failed to bring any warmth to the Canadian autumn.

However, the little tune that played when he was being called did wake him up. He turned off his music, and answered immediately, hardly bothering to check who was calling him. He already knew.

Ivy appeared on his computer screen, face stern, but exhausted at the same time. She hadn’t slept. He knew that look. He hadn’t seen her in days, but he knew that look.

“Player?” She spoke, some of that sternness threaded in her tone.

“I’m here.” He replied. He hadn’t spoken to another person in so long. He felt as if he were cleaning dust from his voice. 

“You okay, buddy?” That venom melted away.

“I’ll be okay. What is it?”

“We need your help.” She admitted. “Can you get your bird over here?”

“Yeah. You’re still in Japan?”

“Mhm.”

“Give it an hour. What… what is it that you need?”

“Can you follow a plane?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ve been tracking the sightings of a plane across Afro-Eurasia. Sightings started in France, continued to Africa, the Middle East, and then…”

“Nothing.” Zack added from offscreen. He sounded just as tired as his sister.

“They must be avoiding India. They’re in open ocean now…”

Player nodded. “I can get satellite data. Give me a bit.”

“There’s, uh, another thing, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you get us a boat?”

“I assume you don’t want to take up fishing?”

“We need to find her. Carmen. Who else is going to?”   
“I can get you a boat. But… are you sure? VILE island, that’s the belly of the beast.”

“Cut a head off a hydra, it grows another. Tear it apart from the inside, it’s dead where it stands.”

“Please don’t die.”

“We’ll try not to. Goodnight, Pla-”

“Wait, wait, one more thing.” He stuttered. He knew he had to do this now. It couldn’t weigh on his chest for forever.

“Huh?”

“The person I was working with-”

“I’m listening.”

“It was Agent Argent.”

Ivy looked shocked for a moment, before nodding, and ending the call. Player’s music started up again. A boss battle theme, from one video game or another.

This was it, and they were going to win. He popped the tab on another energy drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter. Allons-y!


	12. La Fin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title translates to "The End."  
> The pawns have all moved into place. It's time to save the world, or see it destroyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warning: Hospital mention, threats, explosions, possible character death.

“So, your mission partner turned traitor?” Zari’s voice was as devoid of, well, anything, as ever. Now, it was just accented with the electronic whirring of servos. 

Chase gritted his teeth, but did not respond to the obvious taunt. He flicked on his flashlight and illuminated the room ahead of them. They’d just stepped off the teleporter, and the darkness of the shrouded Berlin basement was already pressing in on the new ACME agent.

Zari led the way out, steps confident, and with unsettling mechanical precision. They must’ve been a mile deep, under some skyscraper. Apparently, it was the safest place to put the teleporter.

“She did not turn traitor.” He shook his head as they ascended up the stairs. “I’m sure she had a reason.”

“She was working for the enemy.”

“There’s still no sign of that!”

“What’s the point in defending a traitor?”

“She wasn’t. She was my friend. And she was a smart as hell, too.”

“I guess it would take quite some skill to stay hidden so long, like that. Right under your nose. Isn’t that the English phrase? She was right in front of you, the whole time.”

“What are you saying?” He wished he could hide the note of belief in his tone.

“I’m saying, it would be unlikely for her to just switch sides, all of a sudden. How long has she been your partner?”

“Two years.”

“How do you know that, that whole time, she wasn’t already on the side of the Crimson Ghost? She did always defend her.”

“It would make sense, I guess.”

“It would.”

“So, that’s what you think? That she’s a traitor? That she’s been with VILE, all along?”

“Mhm. And Chief fell right into that trap.”

“She wouldn’t do that. Chief, I mean, Chief wouldn’t. But Julia wouldn’t either. She’s a good person. She defended Sandiego, yes, but…”

“You doubt Sandiego’s guilt now, too?”

“I wasn’t saying that. Sandiego is a criminal. If anyone, she’s the one carrying out their orders.”

“And Julia always defended her. Always.”

“Always, yeah.”

“You don’t find that suspicious at all?” 

“I guess it was, a bit.”

“Then, you need to stop caring about her. She doesn’t care about you. She’s tricked you, all these years.”

“If that’s the case, then why are we saving her?” Chase couldn’t help but clench his fists.

“We aren’t saving her. We’re capturing her. There’s a difference.”

Chase nodded. Zari pushed open a door in the abandoned skyscraper, and fresh air slammed into him. 

Chase Devineaux was not scared. He would not let himself be afraid.

Julia had heard of Cunningham’s law before. The best way to get the right answer is to give the wrong one, or something like that. She wasn’t sure of how true it was, but at this point, she hardly cared.

“Carmen?” She spoke, clearing her throat. “Uh… did you know that Egypt is the African country with the most pyramids?”

There was no response. Julia wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. She had no idea how long she’d been here, but however long it had been, Carmen had not spoken once. Not once. She simply stood there, not looking at Julia. Not looking at anything, really. Just staring off into space.

Julia had tried to awake her. She really had. At first, it was panicked. She’d shaken the door to her cell, and kicked it, and shouted. She called out Carmen’s name until her throat felt raw. She asked her what had happened, in French and English and broken German. 

That never got any response. She switched to trying to converse with her. Really, it was just Julia talking to herself, but it was clearly directed at Carmen. She recounted their various meetings. The airport in Finland, the tunnel in Sri Lanka, the port in Japan. When her well of stories ran dry, she reached further back. She told of how she joined the BFAA, and of all the dumb things Chase had done over the years. When a guard had come by to give her food, she rambled for an hour about Spanish cuisine. She talked, and talked, and talked. Though her voice was quite nearly gone, she refused to stop. She went further back. She read her graduation speech and her lines from the high school play and her final for her speech class.

She wasn’t sure why she did it. She told herself that, likely, she just did not want to sit in silence. But she knew the real reason. She wouldn’t give up. Somewhere, she held out hope. Hope that her next sentence would be the thing to finally awake Carmen.

So far, she’d been brought four meals. All gross, but she ate them. At some point, she’d briefly dozed off. But, except for those instances, she had been talking. 

Though Julia hardly knew anything about the Crimson Ghost, she knew that she was a woman of academia, just as she was. And, she spent her days travelling the world. She must’ve held at least some interest in geography. 

Besides, Player loved geography more than anything. Even if Carmen didn’t care about the subject, maybe she could remind her of the best friend she used to have. 

She hoped someone was taking care of that kid. He was smart as a whip, but he didn’t have much of a danger sense. She only hoped that someone was keeping him out of trouble.

With the memory of the boy in her mind, she tried to remember some of the facts that Player had told her, as she found herself flying around the globe. Then, she twisted them.

“What about, um, did you know there’s only one river in Saudi Arabia?”

Nothing. Carmen didn’t even look.

No, not Carmen. Sure, it was Carmen’s body, but Carmen was not in it. Something had happened to the real Red Phantom. She was buried inside there, somewhere. VILE had tried to hide her, but Julia knew that, somehow, she was there. Even if it was an unrealistic thought, she was sure that nothing could completely delete a person. Maybe it was desperation. Maybe it was hope. Or, maybe it was just delusion. She didn’t care.

“Oh, and, did you know that Chila accounts for half of the Eastern coastline of South America?”

“Western coastline.” Carmen’s voice replied. Weak, but still there. Julia couldn’t stop the tears from beading in her eyes.

* * *

The plane was an unmanned drone, piloted by calculations run by a computer that was hidden away, somewhere. Chase watched out alternating windows as he paced the cabin, back and forth, back and forth, wearing prints of his boots into the short-fibered carpet. 

Julia would’ve told him to stop. To clear his head. But Julia was not here, and Zari couldn’t have cared less about him. She sat silently, seemingly staring out into nothing. He could practically hear the gears turning in her head. (Though it was an expression, there were likely literal gears, somewhere in there.)

Outside the window, Chase caught a brief flash of a building.

“Uh, Zari? What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“The building.”

“What the hell do you think it is? It’s the academy.”

“Oh. Um, aren’t we a little close?”

“What, are you in the mood for a swim?”

“We aren’t landing on the academy, are we?” His panic began to spike.

“Of course we are.”

“We’ll be shot down!”

“Just calm down.”

A robotic voice informed them that the plane was beginning its descent. Chase flinched at the noise. As he did so, Zari stood.

“Do you remember what you said about Chief, earlier?”

“Not the time.”

“Oh, I think it is. You said that she couldn’t be fooled. If Julia was a double agent, she never would’ve been brought into ACME.”

“I.. suppose I did say that.”

“Well, our chief is a lot less clever than you think. And, these drones aren’t all that difficult to trick, either.” It was the most emotion he had ever heard in her voice.

The meaning of her words occurred to Chase a moment too late. A strong arm was wrapped around his neck, and a moment later, he was on the floor, a mechanical knee pressed between his shoulders. 

Chief had been right. He was the stupid one.

* * *

During Julia’s entire prison sentence, although it hadn’t been that long, the steel door to her cell had remained closed. When Carmen, her ever present guard, had moved, she found herself filled with a warm breath of hope. A hope that was quickly extinguished.

A clatter of keys, and the door was slid open on grumbling rollers. The crimson prison guard, face as blank as ever, shoved in another unfortunate soul. Julia had to practically jump out of the way, in order to avoid being toppled. 

She was far from being completely recovered, and the quick movement proved to be too much for her damaged legs. Her foot caught on something, and she found herself falling onto her back. Almost as soon as she collided with the rubber floor, though, a frantic hand was reached out to her. She took it without thinking, and was helped back to her feet by a grip that felt far too familiar.

“Julia?”

She would know that voice anywhere.

Chase Devineaux looked like he had aged five years, or perhaps more. His hair was too thin, and he looked like he’d seen a ghost. Or maybe a god. Or a pantheon of them. A scratch on his face, still trickling blood, evidenced that he had recently been in, and lost, a fight. Despite, though, he did not look overtly injured. 

She nodded, her voice still hoarse as she spoke: “Yeah. Yeah, it’s me.”

“Was Zari lying? I know she probably was but, I don’t know. How could you! How could you do this?! I can’t believe you! I- I- Are you okay? You look hurt. I saw you, in Paris, and-”

“I’ll be okay.” She tried to stop his panicked slew of questions. “I’m… I’m sorry?”

Devineux unclenched his fists.

“Yeah. Me too.” His questions stopped as his train of thought seemed to crash. “You betrayed us.”

“Can I explain? Just this once?”

He said nothing, and simply nodded.

* * *

The few possessions that the twins had had been packed away into a single suitcase and sent to a rural airport in Turkey. Any record of their stay at the hotel had been erased from every existing digital record. As far as anyone would be concerned, Ivy and Zack did not exist, and had not for weeks.

The only thing that remained in their hotel room was a laptop. A quiet ringing announced that their hacker-- their kid-- was calling. Ivy had pulled up a chair and hit the ‘answer’ button before she had even thought about it. Zack was at her side in an instant.

Only a few hours before, Player had reported his drone to have been narrowing in on its target, somewhere off the coast of Korea. At any moment, they would have their location. They’d know where Carmen went. A fishing trolley was set to take them there from their current position in Japan. It would only be a few hours. Then, they’d be in for the fight of their lives.

Based upon Player’s countenance, that was clearly no longer the case. Even as he spoke to them, his eyes flickered around to other things. Other screens. He was trying to keep track of the world, but he was only one kid.

“So, issue.” He spoke, voice at a quick clip. “The reconnaissance drone found the island, fifty miles off the coast of Korea.”

“But?” Zack asked with impatience. Ivy elbowed him.

“But, the plane that the drone is tracking has begun moving again. It’s en route to Oceania, somewhere.”

“So? They’re just going on another mission, right?”

“Maybe.” Player muttered. “But from what I can gather, based on the residual smoke trails, this is far from their first flight to the land down under. And, VILE island… It’s empty.”

“Empty?” Ivy’s voice sounded hollow, like an echo.

“No life signs. Nothing human is on that island.”

“So-”

“Carmen’s not there anymore.”

“Then we go to Oceania.” Zack’s words were spoken with such confidence that it was clear that it was no suggestion. Their voyage to Oceania was as certain as the stars in the sky.

“The drone hasn’t arrived yet. It’s going in that direction, but I don’t have an exact location. Not yet. And I don’t think I can program our plane with directions that don’t exist.”

“We can’t just sit around.” Ivy protested. “We can follow the drone, easy.”

“The red eye can’t. It’s autopilot, it doesn’t work like that. We just have to wait.”

The twins looked at him with dumbfounded expressions, for a moment. Player shrunk back in his seat. He had only just won back the favor of these two, and he wasn’t sure what he would do if he lost it again.

“Um, whiz kid.” Ivy sounded as if she could barely contain a spurt of laughter. “Did you forget we have the best pilot in the world?”

Player’s gaze turned to Zack, whose grin was as wide as could be.

“I’ll get you a plane and a map.” The white hat nodded. How could he lose hope when he had these two doofuses on his side?

* * *

The plane was far too crowded, and Julia couldn’t help but shake. It reminded her all too much of her first encounter with ACME-- being restrained to a chair, her life completely in the hands of another. She supposed that, at least, the person holding her life in their hands was someone she wholeheartedly trusted to do so.

The vessel was nearly identical to the one that Player had sent her about in. Carmen was a woman of habit, she supposed. In the cockpit, two nameless and faceless men piloted, not acknowledging their passengers.

Julia and Chase had been shoved into the furthest back seat of the plane. Though, it was less of a seat, and more of a bench. Just like Carmen’s plane. Both of the ACME agents-- or, the ACME agent and the vigilante-- had their arms restrained behind their backs, and their rocky take-off an hour or so back didn’t help their coherence, either. But, despite, they were both awake, alive, and okay, for the most part.

The same couldn’t be said for their guard.

It was the first time that Julia had seen Carmen since the port in Japan. Sure, she had glimpsed her brown hair and greyed eyes, but she had not truly seen her. Not how she appeared now.

Carmen looked to be an entirely different woman. Her billowly, shapeless red coat had long since been hung up in favor of more tactical clothing, and her hair was no longer covered by a wide-brimmed hat. Though, her clothing had nothing to do with her odd appearance. Not really. That could be attributed to the oddly stiff way in which she stood. It was the stance of someone who was afraid, and Carmen Sandiego was never afraid.

It was, overtly, wrong. It was not Carmen.

“What’s wrong with her?” Chase whispered, his French mumbled and quick. 

“No idea.”

“So, she hasn’t been like this?”

“She has been, ever since she’s been guarding me.”

“But, I mean, before that.”

“Before that?”

“When she was your boss.”

“ _ What? _ ”

Chase shifted uncomfortably.

“I mean, when you were Le Renard, you were working under her orders, right?”

Julia didn’t take her eyes off of Carmen, but her expression conveyed her utter disbelief to Chase.

“Sir, Ms.Sandiego has been in the custody of VILE since we were in Japan.”

“Custody?”

A frustrated instinct brought her to clench her hands into fists, though she had to strain against her restraints to do so.

“You cannot still think that Ms.Sandiego is on their side, can you?”

“I don’t see what would have swayed my opinion on that.”

“What about, uh, everything? Do you not remember in Japan, when she gave herself up?”

“Under VILE’s orders.”

“What about when her accomplices saved you, in the tunnels?”

“Under VILE’s orders. At the very least, they were associated with a VILE operative.”

“If being  _ associated  _ with an operative is all it takes, then aren’t you working with VILE, as well? Agent Zari was your mission partner, after all.”

“That- that is not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it?”

“I didn’t know!”

“And we don’t know if Ms.Sandiego knew, either. She’s on our side.”

“Then why is she not  _ doing _ anything?”

“I, I do not know. Please. Just trust me.”

“You’re a traitor.”

“I’m also your mission partner, Chase. Do you trust me?”

A moment of silence passed between them.

“Yeah. Yeah, i do.”

Julia nodded, and no more words were passed between them. In the cockpit, the faceless man at the controls directed the plane directly into the ocean. 

* * *

Player’s macaw shifted back and forth on its talons as it perched atop a seat on the plane. Even though its feathers were molded from fiberglass, they bristled as, thousands of miles away, Player fiddled with its controller. 

“Drone is going left.” He spoke, voice monotone. He must’ve been giving directions for hours, now. He probably had been.

“Where the hell are we, now?” Ivy’s voice came through with a crackle. Even Player’s satellite network struggled to connect southern Canada to the middle of the Tasmanian Sea. 

He was half a world away, the thought reminded him. He had nothing but this bird and the earpieces he had equipped the twins with. If anything, he may have been about to hear their last moments over fuzzy microphones. 

“200 miles off the coast of New Zealand. The plane is only getting closer.”

“Do you think there’s a base over here? In Zealand?” Zack asked. His hands shook. He could control a car just fine, even for a few hours, but a plane was far more complicated. So many moving parts, so many settings. But he was managing. 

“It’d make sense.” Player nodded.

“But what is there to steal? Shrimp on the barbee?” Ivy added.

Player’s stomach flipped.

“The National Vault.”

“The what?”

“The vault. All the Wondrium that’s left, it’s all stored there.”

“Oh.”

“Ye- Drone’s heading down. Don’t follow yet, wait, wait.” 

“What do you mean it’s heading down?” Ivy hadn’t moved from her post at the window. Outside, there was nothing but endless blue. Player could see it, though to him, it appeared to be naught but a mess of blue pixels. “There’s not any land!”

“Just wait, uh, yeah. It’s going down. Stay on course, it’s going in the same direction.”

“I still don’t know where I’m going!” Zack protested, straining to keep the plane on its course.

“I’m looking, I’m looking, just hold on. It’s not coming back up, it’s- Zack!”

“What?!”

“Follow! Go down, down.”

“I don’t think Ivy can swim that good, dude. Not gonna take us into the ocean.”

“Just go! Into the ocean, come on, come on!” The wings of the macaw flapped in panic. 

“If you’ve brought us all this way just to-” Ivy’s tone took on that voice she had used a few days ago, when she wanted absolutely nothing to do with their hacker.

“Do you trust me?” Player’s young voice cracked.

“Not really!”

“Well, do you trust Carmen?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we do.” Zack nodded.

“And, for your info, I  _ can  _ swim!”

Ivy was thrown against the back of the plane as its nose turned straight downwards, diving into the blue abyss below. A mere moment before the vessel was submerged, the ocean opened, and the twins flew into its gates. 

  
  
  


“Blue alpha coming in, on your six.”

“Blue alpha, red alpha hears you. How is your fleet?”

“In formation. Ready for landing on your word.”

“Good. Keep in formation and wait for further orders.”

“Roger that.” A click signalled that the leader of the blue fleet had dropped the comms link. Chief listened as the rest of the fleets checked in, verifying that all five of them were in formation, and ready to go when the order was given.

It was up to her to give the order.

Her jet was rather spacious, compared to some of the other fighters. Of course, her transport vessel was surrounded by five others, which were entirely identical to it. Every few minutes, they would switch position.

With a stern expression on her face, she watched the screen in front of her, showing the video footage captured from their surveillance jet, which zipped around almost a mile ahead of them.

It saw nothing but water. Then, how in the world had VILE’s plane disappeared from their radar? She had no clue, but she would never admit that. Her authority depended on the confidence of her agents in her. She could not let that fail. 

Across the Tasmanian sea, a hundred jets flew as a flock of birds. Her convoy was at the front, serving as the point of their V formation. Behind her, everything she had worked for for all these years soared.

She stared at the screen, watching on a secondary monitor as her fleet grew closer and closer to New Zealand. The surveillance jet showed nothing but blue, and more blue, and blue and blue and blue and-

A woman?

She was certainly not a slim woman, by any exaggeration of the word. Her shoulders were broad enough to be out of frame on either side, and her face was round, with a brow that hardly looked natural. 

“Chief, is that what you call yourself?” The woman’s voice boomed from her chest. “A bit generic, don’t you think?”

“Who are you?” Chief would not let an ounce of uncertainty creep into her eternally calm tone. 

“If we’re just goin’ by titles, you can call me Coach, hun.”

“Alright, Coach. I cannot say in truthfulness that this is a good time for a diplomatic discussion, but I am willing to hear what you have to say.”

“Oh, I don’t need your permission to speak, honey bun, I was already doing that. And why so formal?”

“What is it that you want?”

“Well, you’re looking for us, aren't cha? How about I give you our coordinates, and we open up the doors for your little flock of idiots?”

“I will not order my fleet into a deathtrap, Coach.”

“Hun, we’re both leaders here, yeah? Sometimes, when you’re a leader, you gotta make the tough choice. And you’ve gotta make this one, I’m afraid.

You’ve always been one for geography, I’ve heard. Well, New Zealand, with all its islands, comprises about one hundred thousand square miles. It was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by humans too, did ya know that, Chief? Did you know that five million people live there?”

A smirk crept onto Chief’s face.

“I do not believe you to be capable of the destruction of an entire country, Coach.”

“And would you like to test that theory?”

“Sure. But, I would rather like to meet face to face, Coach.”

“Your fleet is only waiting on your orders.”

“I know. Alpha red, lead us down!”

* * *

The Red Eye plane landed with a crash and the roaring of landing gear, which was obviously not designed to work on dirt. Ivy fell to her knees, finally released from the gravity defying effects of the nose dive. Zack lost his balance, as well, and fell onto his back. 

Outside the plane’s windows, it was impossible to see anything except shadow, dirt, and several tons of plastic explosives, molded around various support pillars.

* * *

“Why the hell haven’t they killed us yet?” 

It was probably the most despairing thing that Julia had ever heard Chase say. He was always the fierce one, sitting at the bottom of a ravine and threatening the one who had pushed him down. It seemed that nothing could demoralize him.

Though, the way he said it did not imply that he was, in any way, resigned to his fate. He was pissed about it. If anything, he sounded bored, as if he wanted to be fighting for his life.

“I’m sure they’re just afraid. They know they couldn’t defeat you, not in a fight.” Julia replied. It was a joke, but her voice was too tired to express such an emotion.

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Chase responded with complete and utter confidence.

Julia smiled, and nodded. If she was being quite honest with herself, she was surprised that her mission partner hadn’t done something stupid yet. Currently, the two of them were only being guarded by Carmen. The former crimson ghost was strong, sure, but in two on one, even the great Carmen Sandiego could lose. Especially without her gear.

But Chase had still not attacked. She didn’t understand why, but she was glad for it. She couldn’t bear to face her. Though, she likely wouldn’t be much of a threat. She wasn’t armed-- except for that weird metal box she kept gripped in one hand. A taser of some sort, she could only assume.

She didn’t exactly feel like finding out. And thus, the two agents waited. Once again, Julia began to speak, in a desperate attempt to awake her friend.

* * *

Around Chief, more than two hundred agents of ACME were gathered. She’d ordered them to stay along the walls of the tunnel system they’d found themselves in. Though, a group of her more elite soldiers stood in tight formation around her, ready to defend her if any threats arose.

For now, though, the tunnels were eerily silent. The scouts she’d sent out had reported nothing but expenses of giant tunnels, though they’d noted the presence of support structures covered in what could have been explosive materials. 

Whatever. If these tunnels collapsed onto them, they would have at least accomplished their goal: Proving that VILE really did exist. Beyond that, Chief could be rebuilt. It wouldn’t be worth it, not for the rest of her soldiers, but that was hardly more than a minor setback. She could find more soldiers. She could rebuild her empire.

Though it seemed that, now, she may have had a more important objective on her plate. Around her, her soldiers bristled at the sound of approaching footsteps. She righted her posture, and braced herself for another inane conversation. Or, maybe, the woman from earlier would simply kill her. That would certainly be unfortunate.

From the shroud of the dimly-lit tunnels, a figure appeared. They certainly did not match the appearance of the woman who had contacted her almost an hour ago. No, this figure was scrawny, with buzzed hair and eyes that appeared to have nothing going on behind them. In their hands, they held what appeared to be some kind of small television screen. They approached Chief, and held the screen towards her, though it remained firmly in their grasp.

The screen lit up, and once again showed Coach. Chief met the woman’s electronically projected eyes with a suspicious, yet firm, gaze. 

“I must admit, I expected the base of the infamous VILE to be slightly more impressive than this.” She began, tone lighthearted but tinged with venom.

“Oh, hun, I promise you that it is. Just one of our locations, this is. We have quite a few agents, after all. I’m sure you know how that goes.”

“Just get to the point.”

“Impatient, now are we? I guess I can respect that. Now, honey bun, do you remember our agreement from earlier?”

“I have fulfilled my half, and from what I can tell, New Zealand is still standing. So, I’d consider it to be a done deal, as the saying goes.”

“Ah, ah, ah, not quite. There’s something that I forgot to mention, earlier. You’ve only fulfilled a part of your deal, sweetheart.”

“Mhm? And what else do you want?”

“Well, you see, this island, it really means nothing to us. I couldn’t care less if it floats or sinks. But there’s something on it…”

“The Vault. I’m well aware.”

“It’s often said to be the most secure building in the world, y’know.”

“And what is it that you want with it?”

“And here I thought you were supposed to be smart! It’s incredibly secure, yes? The only way to access it would be to allowed in. And I only know just how far your authority extends.”

Chief smirked. “You want us to let you in.”

“Exactly, sweetcheeks.”

“And I would do this for what reason?”

“To save an entire country, of course.”

Chief shook her head. “This island is of no strategic use. I will not give you the world’s largest cache of weapons to ensure its survival.”

Coach nodded, with no emotion but stoic acceptance. She snapped her fingers, and the screen was, once again, black.

Chief whipped around, and found two hundred sets of eyes on her. With a shout like the snap of a whip, she ordered:

“Find the detonator!”

* * *

The shriek of “find the detonator” did nothing. It was not in some hidden-away location. Julia realized that, as soon as she heard the shout.

She didn’t need to know the context to understand the threat.

Julia Argent didn’t think. She just moved. Her eyes burned a hot white as her handcuffs dissolved around her hands. She imagined them as a million atoms, and then imagined breaking each apart. Nothing was left.

Carmen raised her hand, and placed her thumb on the detonator’s button.

Julia was no longer afraid. She slammed forwards, knocking into Carmen, throwing her to the ground. But she wasn’t quick enough.

A clap of holy thunder sounded, and from above, the sky fell.

* * *

Ivy and Zack walked at each other’s sides, not daring to take a step if the other twin would not follow. The shadows around them seemed infinite.

Somewhere, a woman screamed, and a million footsteps flooded the echoing tunnels. The twins sped forwards, until both of them stopped at once.

“Player?” 

Their earpieces crackled. 

“Yeah? What is it?”

“She’s alive.”

“Carmen?”

“Yeah. But, I think something’s wrong with her.”

At that moment, the sky fell, and then it didn’t.

* * *

Carmen awoke to a clap of thunder, the feeling of dirt on her skin, and Julia Argent atop of her. 

Above her, the sky glowed with white flame. As her eyes adjusted, though, she was what it really was.

Mid-air, chunks of dirt floated. Thousands of them. Above the broken pieces, the soil sky was supported by more white light. 

She crawled out from under Julia. The agent’s hands were surrounded by the same white light. She shook and heaved for breath. 

Carmen didn’t know where she was, what was happening, or what to do. She did the only thing she could. She wrapped her arms around Julia, and held her as tight as she could. 

Around them, the white energy around Julia’s hands grew, until it surrounded the both of them in its glow. Carmen had been wondering what her powers were, and it was at that moment she found out.

By herself, she could not do anything. Her power was to help. As she hugged Julia, the Argent Agent became stronger than she ever was.

After all, Carmen’s power was not to fight. It was to love. Julia was the fighter, and with a little help, she could move a continent. She could save the world. 

* * *

Julia Argent, or Kara Nawa, as ACME had told the hospital she was named, was surrounded by beeping machines and white walls. She had survived, this far at least, but overextending ones powers could be detrimental. Worse, it could be fatal.

Either way, Julia was no longer a fugitive. Or an agent. Or a vigilante.

Julia argent was a hero. When she perished, the world wept for her. 


End file.
